Dog attacks are increasing

Recent statistics show that there is a disturbing trend affecting man’s best friend: dog attacks are steadily increasing in the United States. Although still rare overall, dog attacks continue to be a problem in communities across the country.

Although dogs have always been responsible for injuring people, the number of reported dog bites increased significantly after the Covid-19 pandemic began. And while they are not always fatal, the number of attacks that result in death is also increasing. Within two weeks between late May and early June, a husky killed a six-month-old baby in Tennessee and an 83-year-old man was bitten to death by two dogs in Alabama. And last February, another attack in Alabama claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy, just 11 days after a 35-year-old man died in Los Angeles when he was bitten by his pit bulls.

Over the past decade, the number of fatal dog attacks has risen “from an average of about 40 per year to nearly 100 after the pandemic began,” USA Today reported, citing statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The total number of dog bites has also risen exponentially, from “the most recent estimate 20 years ago of 4.5 million to countless millions today.”

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While it can’t be said with certainty that the pandemic was the cause of this increase, there are several correlating factors. One is the “wave of pet adoptions during the pandemic that brought dogs into millions of households that didn’t have them before,” according to The Hill last year. Another is the widespread implementation of Covid lockdown protocols that “put people and dogs together in close quarters for months.” And independent of the pandemic, there has also been a rise in viral pet videos, “encouraging human-canine staring contests and close-ups of dogs ‘smiling’ with bared teeth – episodes that don’t always end well.”

The increase in bites “is likely related to lockdown restrictions, which are causing dogs and children to be together for longer periods of time and perhaps in closer quarters,” according to a study published in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery in 2022. But even though the pandemic is over and there are no lockdown restrictions, dog bite statistics still seem to be rising – and it seems that the end of lockdowns may actually be playing a role.

Dogs who “grew up during the pandemic missed out on important socialization and interaction with other dogs as they hid with their owners during the long lockdowns,” Jim Crosby, a research fellow at Harvard University’s Canine Aggression Project, told USA Today. When lockdowns were lifted and owners returned to their offices, “the dogs were left home alone, depriving them of even more social contact.”

Many fatal dog attacks “are inflicted on children who are visiting or temporarily staying with grandparents, family friends or babysitters,” according to Dogsbite.org. The riskiest situations include “leaving an infant or toddler alone with a dog of any breed, new or temporary living situations with children and dangerous dog breeds,” or “any dog with a history of aggression in a household with children.”

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What are the statistics on dog attacks?

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