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Discounting the Infamous CDC Report
Although the Center for Disease Control (CDC) report lists different dog breeds involved
with human fatalities for the entire United States, the statistics were from 1979 to 1988. Most experts acknowledge
that these were simply bare statistics without reference to the total numbers of dogs in each breed population. The
Tellings trial Court acknowledged that since these numbers were simply bare statistics without any reference to total
number of dogs in each breed, the statistics had no real relevance or meaning. Toledo v. Tellings,
2006 WL 513946 (Ohio App. 6 Dist) Opinion, March 2006.
Expert testimony was presented that the situations
and reasons for any dog attacks, information which was not included in the CDC report, were much more important to the purpose
of preventing future injuries than bare numbers. One expert testified that most fatal attacks on children could
be attributed to lack of parental supervision rather than inherently vicious dogs. Toledo v. Tellings,
2006 WL 523946 (Ohio App. 6 Dist) Opinino, March 2006.
A CDC study on fatal dog bites lists the breeds involved
in fatal attacks over 20 years. (Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979
and 1988.) It DOES NOT identify specific breeds that are most likely to bite or kill, and thus is not appropriate for
policy making decisions related to the topic. Source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Each year, 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs. These bites result in approximately
12 fatalaties; about 0.0002 percent of the total number of people bitten. These relatively few fatalities offer the
only available information about breeds involved in dog bites. Currently, there is no accurate way to identify the number
of dogs of a particular breed, and consequently no measure to determine which breeds are more likely to bite or kill.
Source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
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