HEALTH - US Postal Service Reports Increase in Dog Attacks

It’s dog bite prevention week and the US Postal Service has announced an increase in dog attacks last year.

In 2016, a total of 6,755 postal employees were attacked by dogs in calendar year - compared to 6,549 in 2015.

The statistics can’t be too surprising since pet ownership in the country is also on the rise.

“Even good dogs have bad days,” said U.S. Postal Service Safety Director Linda DeCarlo in Los Angeles, where postal employees suffered 80 attacks — more than any other city in 2016. “Dog bite prevention training and continuing education are important to keep pet owners, pets and those who visit homes — like letter carriers — happy and healthy.”

The Postal Service is just one organization promoting safety around dogs and bite prevention this week.

American Humane, American Veterinary Medical Association, Insurance Information Institute and State Farm Insurance, are also driving home the message that dog bites are a national issue and education can help prevent dog attacks.

Some tips from the Postal Service to keep their workers safe:

• If a letter carrier delivers mail or packages to your front door, place your dog in a separate room and close that door before opening the front door. Dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or plate-glass windows to attack visitors. Dog owners should keep the family pet secured.

• Parents should remind their children and other family members not to take mail directly from letter carriers in the presence of the family pet, as the dog may view the letter carrier handing mail to a family member as a threatening gesture.

• The Postal Service places the safety of its employees as a top priority. If a letter carrier feels threatened by a dog, or if a dog is loose or unleashed, the owner may be asked to pick up mail at a Post Office until the letter carrier is assured the pet has been restrained. If the dog is roaming the neighborhood, the pet owner’s neighbors also may be asked to pick up their mail at the area’s Post Office.

According to the CDC, approximately 4.5 million dog bites occur each year in the United States.

More children and men are bitten, and the majority of dog-bite injuries occur at home with dogs that are familiar to them.

Some basic safety tips from the CDC.

Do:

• Remain motionless (e.g., "be still like a tree") when approached by an unfamiliar dog.
• Curl into a ball with your head tucked and your hands over your ears and neck if a dog knocks you over.
• Immediately let an adult know about stray dogs or dogs that are behaving strangely.

Don't:

• Approach an unfamiliar dog.
• Run from a dog.
• Panic or make loud noises.
• Disturb a dog that is sleeping, eating, or caring for puppies.
• Pet a dog without allowing it to see and sniff you first.
• Encourage your dog to play aggressively.
• Let small children play with a dog unsupervised.

With these tips, everyone can learn how to prevent dog bites and reduce the risk of illness and injury.

BEHAVIOUR - Dog Bite Prevention and BSL, What Works?

When it comes to breed specific legislation (BSL), emotions run high and empirical evidence is lacking.

The dogs most commonly targeted for BSL are “pit bulls,” a group that includes Bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, and any mix of these breeds.

Identifying pit bulls is a challenge, since the validity of genetic testing is ineffective because “pit bull” is a type rather than a recognized breed, and identification based on physical characteristics is unreliable.

BSL has been enacted in many jurisdictions globally, despite evidence that bite frequency does not drop as a result.

In fact, some jurisdictions have seen an increase in bite frequency following BSL.

Toronto, as a notable Canadian example, has had an increase in bite instances since instituting a pit bull ban in 2005. The Netherlands repealed a 15-year ban after finding that dog bite frequency had not been reduced.

When a jurisdiction is used as its own control, meaning that the jurisdiction is tested against itself before and after enacting BSL, there is no significant reduction in incidence.

So why does it remain such a popular option if it is expensive to enact, difficult to maintain, and demonstrably ineffective?

One study published by the AVMA suggests that this enthusiasm is due to a misperception of risk (people believe that the risk associated with dog bites is higher than it is, and that the risk associated with certain breeds is higher than it is), stereotyping and misinformation about breeds, and the belief that BSL is effective despite evidence to the contrary.

There are alternatives, and they appear to be effective. Italy repealed its breed-specific regulations in 2009, and replaced them with laws that focus on the owner. Health Undersecretary Francesca Martini said, “The measures adopted in the previous laws had no scientific foundation… With this law we have overcome the black list, which was just a fig leaf (over the larger problem), and we have increased the level of guarantees for citizens.”

Calgary, Alberta has adopted a similar approach to dog bite prevention, focusing on owner education and placing the responsibility for safety on the owners, rather than the dogs.

Calgary-based trainer Megan Armstrong, CPDT-KSA, CBCC-KA, agrees that focusing on the owner is critical. “We must better educate dog owners on canine communication and body language… In an ideal world, we would be looking at it being mandatory that dog owners train and socialize their dogs versus putting the blame on a breed. Dogs follow our direction, so we must hold dog owners more accountable to how they are training and raising them versus making the dog pay for our errors.”

Despite this evidence, and public support for owner-focused legislation from high-profile pet organizations such as the National Companion Animal Coalition, BSL seems here to stay.

As some repeal BSL, other jurisdictions, like Quebec, are currently contemplating enacting it. And some Canadian insurance providers deny coverage to pit bull owners, or charge higher premiums for owners of pit bulls.

By Tiffany Sostar

Tiffany is a writer, editor, academic, and animal lover who came late to her appreciation of pets. At 18, a rescue pup named Tasha saved her from a depression and she hasn't looked back. She has worked as the canine behaviour program coordinator for the Calgary Humane Society, and was a dog trainer specializing in working with fearful and reactive dogs for many years. She doesn't have any pets right now, but makes up for it by giving her petsitting clients (and any dogs she comes across on her frequent coffee shop adventures) extra snuggles.

Hug the Dog

Since Dr. Stanley Coren’s observations and recommendation to not hug dogs were published last week, the internet has erupted with pet owners touting their hug-loving dogs and trainers/behaviourists with differing opinions.

"My dogs love being hugged," Corey Cohen, a companion animal behaviour therapist at A New Leash on Life in Pennsylvania, told the New York Times. He thought dogs could be comfortable if there was familiarity and trust.

Erica Lieberman, a dog trainer and behavior consultant with Pawsibilities Pets in New York City, told the New York Times “I believe people should err on the side of caution.” That in general, dogs should not be hugged — just to be on the safe side.

 

So, what does the science say?

No one has done a formal study or research to determine whether hugging or other close contact causes stress or pleasure in dogs.

"This is a set of casual observations," Coren told The Washington Post. He hopes another scientist will take his idea and study it more formally.

In the meantime, people wonder if they should or should not hug their dog.

The answer may be - it depends.

It depends on the dog and its desire for close physical contact in general, and the level of familiarity and trust between the human and dog.

Read the full story here.

Don't Hug the Dog

Dr. Stanley Coren, author of “How to Speak Dog,” recently examined 250 photos from the internet of dogs being hugged, looking for signs of stress and relaxation.

His thoughts, published in Psychology Today, indicate hugging the family dog is not a good idea.

81.6% of the photographs showed dogs who were giving off at least one sign of discomfort, stress, or anxiety. Only 7.6% of the photographs could rate as showing dogs that were comfortable with being hugged. The remaining 10.8% of the dogs were either showing neutral or ambiguous responses to being hugged.

(Psychology Today)

“This data clearly shows that while a few dogs may like being hugged, more than four out of five dogs find this human expression of affection to be unpleasant and/or anxiety arousing,” Coren wrote.

Coren's results support the long-held belief by animal behaviour experts and dog bite prevention organizations who encourage not hugging or kissing dogs.

In fact, Doggone Safe, dedicated to dog bite prevention through education and awareness, lists "Dogs Don't Like Hugs and Kisses" as number one of the three most important things to teach your kids.

Read the full story here.

Despite Breed Ban, Toronto Dog Bites Increase

(bestfriends.org)

Despite a breed-based ban culminating in a dramatic drop in the number of pit bull type dogs in Ontario, reported cases of canine bites has increased.

In Toronto, for instance, there were 576 bites in 2004 (a year before the ban) and 767 in 2014, Global News recently reported.

The numbers are not what those who backed the ban would have predicted. 

Indeed, then-Attorney General Michael Bryant, assured the ban was “the beginning of the end of the reign of terror, imposed by pit bulls” and would “over time” mean “fewer pit pull attacks.”

Now, however, the question illustrated by Global News remains – if almost all the pit bulls are gone, why do dog bite numbers continue to climb?

Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo, says it is because the problem was never with pit bulls. “I’m not surprised at all by those statistics,” she told Global. “I would think they were inevitable.”

Under the ban, four breeds often all referred to a'pit bulls' (pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers and American pit bull terriers) had to be kept muzzled or leashed in public and sterilized within two months of its passage and it became illegal to breed the dogs or import them into the province.

There are now just over 300 pit bulls in Ontario compared with more than 1,400 about a decade ago – and in theory, pit bulls should cease to exist in Toronto by 2020.

But as pit bull numbers dwindle, dog bites have continued to climb since 2012. In Toronto, bites hit the highest levels recorded this century in 2013 and 2014.

That is because other dogs do the biting.

In 2014, German shepherds, labs, and Rottweilers were among the top offenders along with little dogs including Jack Russell terriers, shih tzus and Maltese.

Some believe breed-based bans are a practical ploy to improve public safety.

While others, like Teegan Buckingham, with the Toronto Humane Society, say it has punished a particular breed - the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association estimating the law, by 2012, had led to more than 1,000 of the demonized dogs and puppies with no history of violence being euthanized. “We would love to see the pit bull ban lifted,” Buckingham told Global.

DiNovo favours a system similar to Calgary where officials have seen a dramatic drop in bites since the 1980s without a breed-based ban but by promoting education of dog owners, children and strict enforcement.

Bill Bruce, Calgary's animal services director at the time, spoke before an Ontario government committee several years after it imposed its ban to debunk beliefs it would mean less bites.

“What we did learn is that when you do ban a breed, of course, the bites go down for that specific breed; that’s no surprise,” Bruce told the committee. “If there are fewer of them, there are fewer opportunities. But what we found is that bites tend to go up dramatically in other breeds. Any dog, again, can bite, and it’s coming back on the owner to make that determination if a dog is safe or not.”

Dr. Dale Scott, president of the Ontario Veterinary Association at the time, told the committee breed-based bans do not work because they are based on incorrect assumptions not backed by scientific research - “that only certain breeds are dangerous and that all dogs that belong to those breeds are dangerous.”

By Nadia Moharib

Nadia Moharib is an animal lover who has adopted everything from birds to hamsters, salamanders, rabbits, fish and felines. She has written about all-things-pets for years and was a long-time editor of a pet magazine in a daily newspaper which featured a Q & A column, Ask Whit, penned by her pooch (ghost written, of course.) The serial dog owner lives in Calgary, Alberta and most days can be found at a dog park picking up after her rescue pooch, Scoots.

National Dog Bite Prevention Week May 19-25

Irresponsible Dog Owners may be endangering others in the community

According to statistics published in the US by the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, dog bites accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners insurance liability claims paid out in 2011.


According to the Insurance Information Institute (III) nearly $479 million in claims were paid by insurers.  State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, the largest writer of homeowners insurance in the US, paid out more than $109 million as a result of its nearly 3,800 dog bite claims in 2011.

The III analysis of homeowners insurance data found that the average cost of dog bite claims was $29,396 in 2011, up 12.3 percent from $26,166 in 2010. In fact, from 2003 to 2011, the cost of the average dog bite claim increased by 53.4 percent. The number of claims rose 3.3 percent from 15,770 in 2010 to 16,292 in 2011. These increases can be attributed to increased medical costs as well as the size of settlements, judgments and jury awards given to plaintiffs, which have risen well above the rate of inflation in recent years.

Dog Owner Liability Laws in the US

There are three kinds of law that impose liability on dog owners although not all the laws apply in every state:

Dog-bite statute: The dog owner is automatically liable for any injury or property damage the dog causes, even without provocation.

"One-bite" rule: In some states, the owner is not held liable for the first bite the dog inflicts. Once an animal has demonstrated vicious behavior, such as biting or otherwise displaying a "vicious propensity," the owner can be held liable. Some states have moved away from the one-bite rule and hold owners responsible for any injury, regardless of whether the animal has previously bitten someone.

Negligence laws: The dog owner is liable if the injury occurred because he or she was unreasonably careless (negligent) in controlling the dog. 

To reduce the chances of a dog biting someone, consider taking the following steps:

• Consult with a professional (e.g., veterinarian, animal behaviorist, or responsible breeder) to learn about suitable breeds of dogs for your household and neighborhood.
• Spend time with a dog before buying or adopting it. 
• Use caution when bringing a dog into a home with an infant or toddler. A dog with a history of aggression is inappropriate in a household with children.
• Be sensitive to cues that a child is fearful of or apprehensive about a dog and, if so, delay acquiring a dog. 
• Never leave infants or young children alone with any dog.
• Have your dog spayed or neutered. Studies show that dogs are three times more likely to bite if they are NOT neutered.
• Socialize your dog so it knows how to act with other people and animals.
• Discourage children from disturbing a dog that is eating or sleeping.
• Play non-aggressive games with your dog, such as "go fetch." Playing aggressive games like "tug-of-war" can encourage inappropriate behavior.
• Avoid exposing your dog to new situations in which you are unsure of its response.
• Never approach a strange dog and always avoid eye contact with a dog that appears threatening.
• Immediately seek professional advice from veterinarians, animal behaviorists, or responsible breeders if your dog develops aggressive or undesirable behaviors. 

Most dogs are friendly, loving members of the family but even normally docile dogs may bite when they are frightened or when protecting their puppies, owners or food. Ultimately, the responsibility for properly training and controlling a dog rests with the owner.

2012.3 YourSAY™ Survey - National Companion Animal Coalition

The National Companion Animal Coalition (also known as NCAC), founded in 1995, to consider national issues and propose solutions that would be acceptable to the member organizations. Currently, the member organizations include Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, Canadian Kennel Club and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council of Canada. Agriculture Canada participates as an observer since the Coalition's inception.

Several issues that have been dealt with over the years are breed specific legislation, use of electronic identification in companion animals, dog bite prevention, sample municipal animal control bylaw and resources to help pet owners make an informed choice when selecting a dog.

We'd like to collect your personal opinions as a thought leader in the Canadian industry to illuminate future discussions about the NCAC. 

This YourSAY™ survey will close on Thursday, 8 March 2012 at midnight.  You may start and stop your participation to serve your convenience until you push the 'finished' button or until the survey closes. Click the link to answer the survey:

 

2012.3 YourSAY Survey 

Your identity is protected and cannot be associated with the opinions you express. Summary results of this survey will be reported to industry on Thursday, 15 March 2012. 

The 2012.2 YourSAY survey was reported on Monday, 27 February 2012. See what leaders had to say about the Corporate Vet Care.

2012.2 YourSAY Report

 

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