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433 people died from dog bites between 2005 and 2017

On Behalf of | Apr 13, 2018 | Dog And Animal Bites |

Imagine that you live next door to a dog owner, and their pet hasn’t exactly been the nicest dog since you’ve known them. To be fair, the dog has never attacked or done anything vicious — but the animal lacks that joyful demeanor that many other dogs have. As the months pass, you think nothing of the dog owner and the animal itself. Until one day, as you are walking towards your home after work, the dog starts barking and runs at you, attacking and biting you all over your body.

You suffer serious injuries that require hospitalization. Your medical bills are immense, and the pain and suffering you endure in the following weeks and months is incalculable. Sadly, cases like this are far more common than you would think. And sometimes, the victim suffers far worse than this.

According to data from DogBites.org, there were 39 fatalities related to dog bites in 2017. In 2016, the number was 31 fatalities. For both of these years, pit bulls were involved in a vast majority of the deaths (71 percent in 2016 and 74 percent in 2017). And when you look at the 13-year period from 2005 to 2017, there were 433 deaths related to dog bites, with 66 percent of these incidents involving pit bulls.

The point here is simple: dog bites can be fatal, and dog owners that fail to properly train or secure their dog should be held accountable when their pet deals serious, catastrophic, or fatal harm to an innocent person.

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