So, again, hate posting these stories but am working on some things for the year-end synopsis and having the indivdual stories will help draw some texture to this ongoing dialogue and conversation.
Dog bite-related fatalities are exceedingly rare -- with somewhere are 30 happening each year in the United States. While 30 may seem like a lot, in a nation with nearly 78 million owned dogs, and more than 300 million people, the odds of someone being a victim are virtually non-existent. But these cases do remain tragedies for the families of the victims, which is why its exceedingly important people to focus on the circumstances surrounding the attacks -- which is a much more impactful way of assessing them than by focusing just on the looks of the dogs involved.
34 year old Esteban Alavez of Selma, A was found dead outside his home-- apparently a victim of being attacked by dogs. Alavez was found by a woman who saw him laying on her property when she arrived home that night.
The man was apparently attacked by four dogs, described as "pit bulls", that were roaming at large in the neighborhood -- and according to one neighbor, were frequently roaming at large and often displayed aggressive behavior prior to this event and were linked to the deaths of two pets in just the past month.
According to the the Fresno County Coroner, he suffered a bite that punctured his jugular vein.
A total of 12 dogs were seized from a nearby home -- including a chihuahua and 7 puppies that were not believed to be involved in the attack.
The community of Selma has a population of 23,219 with 31% of the population that lives below the poverty line -- more than double the national average. The story was picked up by about 25 news sources.
No community should have to be fearful of roaming packs of aggressive dogs in their neighborhood -- regardless of the type of dogs they are. Any large group of dogs can be a problem for a singular individual if they become aggressive toward them, and can be controlled by the proper enforcement of a leash law.
My heart goes out to the Alavez family for their loss.
Savannah Edwards -- Shawnee County, KS
Two year old Savannah Edwards was tragically killed when she was bitten by a dog owned by a family relative.
The dog involved was a rescued dog, about 6 years old, and was a pit bull type dog. Neighbors report that the dog was calm and mild mannered.
Edwards, and her mother, went to visit their relative at his home in rural Shawnee County. It was that relative that owned the dog. Unfortunately, thus far, not much information is available on the circumstances leading up to the incident -- or whether the incident was an "attack" or whether it was a poorly placed bite.
Although major dog bites are rare, young toddlers are often the victims when they happen because they tend to not recognize warning signals given by dogs -- which is why children and dogs should always be supervised when they're together.
This area of Shawnee County has a poverty level of 21% -- so about 50% higher than the national average. Meanwhile, there has also been some mis-information in this case trying to link it to Topeka's breed specific law repeal two years ago. This incident occured in unincorporated Shawnee County (Topeka is the county seat of Shawnee County) and in an area unaffected by Topeka laws. Meanwhile, Topeka was very right to repeal their breed-specific law 2 years ago as there is no linkage between breed-specific laws at actually improving public safety.
Unfortunately this is a tragic accident and my heart goes out to the family in this case.
Will be interested in your year end synopsis especially since you are a numbers guy, lol. As you point out the numbers are not large as a percent of the population but they are unique enough I guess people show a lot of interest in it. While I have done absolutely no analysis it would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between size of the dog vs size and physical agility of the victim. That might show more correlation than breed.
Posted by: Randy | December 19, 2012 at 06:03 PM
I just happened upon your link and as the founder of a small rescue/advocacy group along with being a scientist with much epidemiology in my background. Thank you for your posts!
Posted by: Nancy Tranzow | December 24, 2012 at 07:06 PM