Articles Posted in Dog Bites

You may know that California has one of the highest rates of dog bites and animal attacks in the country, with thousands of dollars in insurance payouts every year for dog bite injuries. Given that California is a strict liability state when it comes to dog bites, it is extremely important for anyone who is considering bringing a new dog into the family to know about a new adoption law that is designed to protect potential adopters. While the new law is aimed at providing families with more information about whether a dog may have a history that could make a dog bite more likely in the future, the impetus remains on adopters to ask questions about the dog’s viciousness. A recent article in CityWatch discusses the new law and what it could mean for dog owners in dog bite cases.  

California Governor Signs New Law Concerning Potential Dog Adopters

On October 2, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom sign AB 588 into law. The new law, according to the article, “is important to anyone who adopts, or considers adopting, a dog from any animal shelter, human society, or “rescue” group in California and to anyone living in a community where an adopted dog is kept.” In short, the new law requires all animal shelters in the state to inform adopters about whether any dog that is four months old or older has bitten a person and broken the skin. Under the new law, the animal shelter is required to inform a person about this type of animal history prior to selling a dog, giving away a dog, or otherwise releasing a dog. The history of bite(s) must be disclosed in writing, along with information concerning the incident in which the dog bite occurred.

How often do dog bite injuries in Poway happen? Whether you are in Poway or in another part of Southern California, it is important to know that California routinely leads the nation in the highest rate of dog bites, and this year is no different. According to a recent report in the Insurance Journal, California ranked first in dog bite injury claims based on data in a new report. While dog bite claims across the nation did decrease slightly, California continued to have more dog bite claims than any other state by hundreds of incidents. What else should San Diego residents know about the report, and what can we do to prevent dog bite injuries?

 
Report Says California Had More Than 400 Dog Bite Claims in 2018

The Insurance Information Institute (III) and State Farm conduct a report each year on dog bite injury claims. For the 2017 year, the report showed California ranking first in the total number of dog bite injury claims with a total of 488 claims. Across the country, the report for 2017 showed a total of about 3,600 claims, meaning that dog bite injury claims in the state of California accounted for nearly 14% of all dog bite injury claims in the country. A total of $18.7 billion was paid out in 2017.

When Encinitas residents think about ways to reduce the rate of dog bite injuries and animal attacks, they will likely think about types of both animal and human behavior. However, there are other ways to assess dog bite incidents and to find new ways to reduce serious attacks, particularly among young children. According to a recent article in Tech Times, researchers are turning to YouTube videos in order to study dog attacks and, ultimately, to prevent dog bite injuries.

Can YouTube Provide Information About Dog Attacks?

It is often difficult for researchers to study dog bites by observing the behavior of the dog during the attack. After all, these incidents happen quickly, and the victims rarely have photographic evidence of them. However, dog attacks do often get filmed by witnesses, and many of those videos end up on YouTube. As the article explains, researchers have turned to YouTube in order to “conduct direct observation and analyses of dog bites.”

Are you more likely to suffer a dog bite injury in Poway if you have a certain type of personality? On the surface, the idea might seem ridiculous. After all, dogs bite for many different reasons and often bite unprovoked. However, according to a recent article in Psychology Today, the notion that certain personality characteristics could place individuals at greater risk of sustaining a dog bite injury might not be so far-fetched. Of course, a dog bite victim’s personality traits are not sufficient to get the owner off the hook in the event a dog does bite. Yet, understanding the relationship between an individual’s personality characteristics and the risk of sustaining a dog bite injury might help residents of Southern California to better protect themselves.

Body Language can Affect the Likelihood of a Dog Attack

According to the article, people who experience anxiety and distress, or more colloquially, those who display the personality characteristic of “neuroticism,” could be more likely to get bitten by a dog. The article cites a previous study on the issue published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, and it seeks to assess whether the research findings in that study are legitimate based on our knowledge of clinical psychology. Can a certain level of neuroticism, which can lead an individual to appear nervous or on edge, increase the likelihood that a dog may bite that person?

For anyone who owns a dog in Encinitas and does not have insurance protection through a homeowners’ policy, it is important to consider renter’s insurance or other forms of coverage that could protect you in the event of a dog attack, or in the event that a person gets hurt in an accident as a result of a “dog fright,” according to a recent article in Reuters. In other words, dog bite injuries and accidents connected to dog attacks occur more often than you might think, and it is important for injury victims to be able to obtain compensation.

For many dog bite victims, the easiest and quickest way to obtain financial compensation for hospital bills and psychological injuries is to file an insurance claim. When the dog owner does not have insurance, the injury victim often will file a dog bite lawsuit.

Increase in Dog Bite Insurance Claims and Payouts Across the Country