Some More Dog Bite Statistics

After a couple of highly politicized dog bite attacks in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Rep. John Lesch (DFL-St. Paul) announced to great fanfare that he would propose legislation next session to ban 5 different breeds of dogs, including Pit Bulls. Both Chief and I wrote a couple of initial posts on the issue on our respective blogs. Since those posts in July, a couple of things have happened.

1) Rep. Lesch held a town hall meeting that many anti-breed ban legislation groups attended. A couple of people got out of line which put a very bad face on dog owners (see the comments in my post here).

2) Two more attacks occurred - one of them was fatal.

Here is some unemotional statistics (courtesy of the National Canine Research Council)

Over the past 42 years there have been three (3) fatal dog attacks in Minnesota or approximately one (1) dog attack fatality every 12 years.

Two different breeds of dogs have been involved in the three fatal attacks.

One of the three fatal attacks in Minnesota involved loose roaming dogs attacking a child on a bicyle, (1984). The other two fatal dog attacks were inflicted on unsupervised children attempting to interact with a chained dog, (1981, 2007).

The third and latest fatal attack (2007) occurred in Minneapolis with a intact, male dog chained in the basement. The dog had a history of biting and aggression. There was also a female dog on the premises, and a litter of puppies...

And despite the reckless ownership practices of some dog owners, dogs still pose an incredibly low risk for causing a fatal as demonstrated by the following statistics:

Fatal Dog Attacks in Minnesota as Compared to Other Selected Risks:

Fatalities in Minnesota over a 10-year-period: 1993 - 2002

Persons killed by dogs: 0

Persons killed by fireworks: 1

Killed by Mule: 1

Children killed by horses: 4

Adults killed by cattle: 7

Lightning deaths: 11

Persons drowned in swimming pool: 24*

Bicycle-related deaths: 39*

* Under reported - data only includes years 1999 - 2002.

More people (in bicycle and pool related incidents) died in 8 years than were killed by dogs in 10. That is something you didn't see reported by our local media! Another thing that our local media didn't report is that since 1965 only one death has been attributed to a pit bull and that is the one that just happened in August. Most of the reasons that the NCRC lists are contributing factors to attacks are reasons that I covered in my previous posts!

Sadly, I fear no amount of common sense will sink into the minds of our esteemed media. They are, today, wailing about how two girls on the White Earth Reservation were attacked by a Rottweiler this morning. On the radio there is not mention at all of the fact that the Star Tribune waits until the 5th paragraph of their story to report....that the dog was unrestrained - running loose in the neighborhood. That action alone (in a populated area) is a sure fire sign of an irresponsible owner. Of course that aspect will never get reported!