LARGE ANIMAL ATTACKS - Medicine for Mountaineering and Other Wilderness Activities - page 465

Injuries Produced by Bears
Bears often attack the face or head first. Injuries are produced by biting and by clawing
and batting with the forelegs. Claws and teeth produce lacerations that sometimes are ex-
tensive. Body cavities are often punctured or opened. The lungs may be punctured. Frac-
tures, including skull fractures, are common.
Dogs
In 2001, an estimated 68 million canines were kept as pets in the United States. These
animals inflict approximately 4.5 million bites each year, and approximately 885,000 per-
sons require medical care. In 2006 more than 31,000 people underwent reconstructive sur-
gery to repair dog-inflicted injuries.
More than 330 fatalities were documented during the twenty-year period 1979 to 1998.
However, only about three-fourths of all dog bite-related fatalities were identified, indic-
ating that an average of twenty-two fatalities result from such bites each year. Most are in
young children, and most result from hemorrhage from the large blood vessels in the neck.
The number of attacks on humans by dogs, the number of injuries, and the number of
fatalities from dog bites in the United States clearly are far higher than those for all other
large animals combined.
Injury rates are highest for children five- to nine-years-old and decrease with increasing
age. Approximately 42 percent of all dog bites occurred among children less than fourteen
years old, and the rate is significantly higher for boys than for girls.
Injuries occur most commonly to the arm and hand (45.3 percent), leg and foot (25.8
percent), and head and neck (22.8 percent). However, most injuries among children less
than four years old are to the head and neck (64.9 percent).
Although many injuries are described in medical records as “dog bite,” other diagnoses
indicate the types of injuries that are produced by dog bites: puncture (40.2 percent), lacer-
ation (24.7 percent), contusion, abrasion, or hematoma (6 percent), cellulitis or infection
(1.5 percent), amputation, avulsion, or crushing injury (0.8 percent), and fracture or dislo-
cation (0.4 percent). (Bites by wolves and coyotes produce similar injuries.)
Mostdogbites(80percent)incurredbypersonslessthaneighteenyearsoldareinflicted
by a family dog (30 percent) or a neighbor's dog (50 percent). From 1979 to 1998, 75 per-
cent of fatal dog bites were inflicted on family members or guests on the family's property.
In 2001, an estimated 8 percent of dog bites to persons more than sixteen years old were
work related, including some that occurred while persons were visiting homes as part of
their work activities.
At least twenty-five breeds of dogs, including a dachshund and a cocker spaniel, have
been involved in 238 human fatalities for which a breed could be identified during the
1979-1998period.Pitbullsandrottweilerswereinvolvedinmorethanhalfofthesedeaths,