Reported Dog Bites: Are Owned and Stray Dogs Different?

Bite reports for 1985 from the city of Dallas, Texas, were analyzed for different aspects of the dog-bite event, including characteristics of the dogs, victims, wounds, and attack settings. Most commonly, bites were inflicted by owned, male dogs that bit victims who were male, 20 years of age or younger, and acquainted with but not living in the same household as the dog. Attacks frequently occurred in the late spring to early summer and in the late afternoon. These characteristics are similar to typical bite events in large urban settings reported by others (e.g., Beck and Jones 1985; Beck, Loring, and Lockwood 1975). Further analysis of 1,724 bite reports showed that owned dogs were more dangerous than strays: compared to strays, owned dogs delivered significantly more bites, were larger, bit more victims on the head or neck, and delivered more bites resulting in wounds needing treatment, often at an emergency room. That victims are more likely to report only severe bites from owned dogs is proposed as a parsimonious but as yet unsubstantiated explanation for these differences.