Dog Bites In Australian Children

[Sticky]

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/195_11_121211/kim11319_fm.html

S

[sandgrubber]

Good objective summary. Thanks for posting.

[Tassie]

+1 - thanks for sharing - have passed it on to the local coordinateor of our in-schools dog-bite prevention program. She is also involved in the local dogs' home - so doubly helpful for her. Thanks again. :D

[klink]

In relation to the above article, there are currently programs running in the school system at the moment addressing the issues with dogs' and children. e.g. The responsible Pet Ownership Program which has had great success amongst' young children.

Children as we all know are at the forefront of injuries from dogs' ( of all breeds ) and the continued media hype re certain breeds does nothing but damage attempts to address our problems.

Many countries have tried to ban certain breeds and have found that makes no difference.

IMO not only do children need to be educated and informed of procedures to minimise their risk of injury, but just as critical is the need for adult education.

Over the years some of the doggie' comments made by dolers sometimes helps me realise the enormity of the problem when many of us so called experts differ so much with our solutions and handling of the cause of all of our dramas',, which simply is us! the dog owners/breeders.

[Blackdogs]

Dogs used for hunting or as guard dogs should not be allowed to mix with children.

Not sure about this. There are plenty of hunting dogs that can differentiate between a prey animal and a child.

Otherwise, a pretty good article!

[mita]

That's an excellent summary.

Thanks for posting it.

It certainly highlights the evidence. No breed or mix is any more dangerous than others on breed label alone. So they highly recommend focus on dog owners, as they're the people who should be in control.

Good to see prevention programs with school-age children getting good results. But that still leaves the most vulnerable group, the infants & preschoolers. So it'd be good to see concentrated programs aimed at parents of the very young children.

In the Netherlands, where good data on breeds and bites exist, breed-specific legislation was repealed because they found no one breed more dangerous than any other. They recommended there be a focus on owners of dogs in cases where the people bitten did not interact with the dog that bit them.

Training for dogs and education for dog owners and children can reduce the incidence of dog bites. A recent United States study reported that knowledge about dog bite prevention among young, school-aged children is poor.7 However, education programs in the primary school setting have been shown to alter a child’s interaction with dogs.8

Edited December 16, 2011 by mita