Fatal dog attacks are difficult to predict. However, some common factors emerge

When a pack of dogs attacked her three children as they got off the school bus last Thursday, Courtney Williams rushed to help. The dogs then turned on the 35-year-old mother from Quitman, Georgia, who was later found dead in her neighbor’s yard.

Williams’ cause of death is not yet known. Regardless, the attack left the family grieving just three days before Mother’s Day. And she wasn’t the only one who got hurt.

During the altercation, Williams’ 12-year-old son pushed his 10-year-old sister out of the way and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Although fatal dog attacks are rare, they claim dozens of lives in the United States each year. Although experts say it’s difficult to predict when a dog will attack, dog owners and lovers can take precautions to avoid the risk of their dog or dogs inflicting bite wounds around them.

Several people have been killed in dog attacks in the United States this year.

In March, a dog fatally mauled a 3-month-old boy and seriously injured his parents at the family’s home in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Police declared the baby dead at the scene, while his mother, 21, and father, 27, were treated at a hospital and released the same day. The dog, a pit bull, was euthanized after the incident, according to the local prosecutor’s office.

This attack came weeks after an English bulldog killed a four-year-old boy named Beau Clark in Hartselle, Alabama, in late February. The boy’s family was close to the dog’s owners, had no history of violent behavior and knew the child well, Morgan County officials said.

That same month, a Los Angeles man died after at least one of his pit bulls mauled him, authorities said. The 35-year-old man may have been feeding the dogs at his Compton home when they became violent, officials said. A friend saw the attack from next door and called 911, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told the Los Angeles Times. According to animal control authorities, five adult pit bulls and at least eight puppies were later found on the farm.

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Fatal dog attacks, while rare, have increased sharply

Although 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs each year, according to the World Health Organization, it is extremely rare for them to suffer fatal abuse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 81 people died after being bitten by dogs in 2021.

Experts say the number of annual dog bite deaths is so small that it becomes difficult to measure year-to-year trends.

“The numbers are just too small to determine,” said Janis Bradley, director of communications and publications at the National Canine Research Council. “This means that if the numbers change slightly from year to year, even if there seems to be a trend, you can’t do anything statistically meaningful with it.”

That hasn’t stopped scientists from identifying connections. A study published in 2013, which Bradley called the “gold standard” on the subject, examined “potentially preventable factors” in the 256 dog bite-related deaths in the United States between 2000 and 2009. It found that in the vast majority of Cases – 223, or 87.1% – there was no able-bodied person to intervene. The second most common factor was that the victim had a “casual or non-familiar relationship” with the attacking dogs (in 85.2% of cases).

Other factors identified in the study had to do with the dogs’ previous treatment and interactions with humans. In most attacks, the victim’s ability to interact appropriately with dogs was “impaired” or the dogs had been isolated from human contact. Most of the attacks also affected male dogs that were not castrated.

Scientists couldn’t say with certainty that it was a single factor that caused the whole thing.

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When dogs become aggressive

Although it is difficult to predict that a dog will hurt someone, most dog bites are not unforeseeable. Dogs usually bite in response to something in their environment, said Lori Teller, past president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

“If a dog feels like he’s in a really stressful situation and has no other way out, he may bite to defend his territory,” she said. “Some dogs may bite because they were very scared or startled or felt threatened about something.”

In some cases, dogs bite to protect something, like a mother protecting her puppies, Teller said. Pain or nausea can also trigger a reaction in dogs. “We have seen dogs hit by a car and someone rescues them to get them to appropriate veterinary care. And they bite just because it hurts,” Teller said.

The key to teaching dogs not to bite is training and socialization, she said. Puppy owners should train their pets until they learn not to bite or bite. “Some people think it’s really cute, and it might be really cute when you have a 3-pound puppy, but it’s not so cute when you have a 30, 40, 50, 100-pound dog,” she said.

Even long-time dog lovers should always ask strangers before petting their dogs. “Just because you love dogs doesn’t mean all dogs love all people,” Teller said. “Some dogs may be shy around strangers and not want to be petted.”

Young children are the most common victims of dog bites and often suffer more serious injuries. With this in mind, parents should teach their children how to deal with dogs. “They should not be allowed to just walk over the dog and try to pet or hug it without knowing how the dog will react,” Teller said.

Dog breeds banned by insurance companieshttps://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/home-insurance/dog-breeds-banned-home-insurance/

There has long been a controversy in dog circles about exactly which dog breeds to classify. Some say that certain breeds are prone to violence or aggression.

Teller said the data to support that statement has not yet been fully fleshed out. Focusing on a dog’s breed causes people to overlook the importance of its training. Teller emphasized that “it is much more important to focus on the individual animal, making sure it is trained and socialized.”

Bradley, of the National Canine Research Council, said the only real factor that can predict whether a dog will bite is whether it has done so before. Even then, dogs can change, she said.

“If you think about it, it’s the same with people,” she said. “You don’t really know if someone is going to pick on someone and decorate someone, no matter how angry and red-faced they are, if they haven’t already done it. You don’t know how much he’ll do to inhibit that impulse. The same goes for dogs.

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