The experience of dog bites: a survey of veterinary science and veterinary nursing students

To investigate the circumstances of dogs biting people in New Zealand.

Veterinary science and veterinary nursing students enrolled at Massey University in 2003 completed a questionnaire detailing their lifetime experience of dog bites and their opinions of dog control legislation.

The response rate was 100%. There were 228 completed responses to the survey, and 87 (38%) respondents had been bitten by a dog. Most bites caused minor injury, but 17 (20%) required medical attention. Male respondents were more likely to have been bitten. The highest proportion of respondents (27; 31%) had been bitten while between 6 and 10 years of age, and the hand was the part of the body most often injured. Eighteen (21%) bites involved a stranger's dog, but most bites were by a dog known to the victim. Respondents from rural areas were three times more likely to have been bitten than city dwellers. The victim's home was the place where most (31; 36%) bites occurred. Male dogs were responsible for a larger proportion of bites (38; 44%) than females (24; 28%); respondents were unsure about the sex of the remainder of the dogs (25; 29%) that bit them. Protecting the home, play, accidents, rough handling and pain were identified as the common reasons for dogs to bite. Most (46; 52%) respondents did not believe legislation could have prevented their bite. Only four (5%) bites were reported to authorities.

Rural dwellers, people with more experience of dogs, children <11 years of age, and male respondents were bitten by dogs most often. Only legislation relating to the fencing of dog owners' properties may have prevented a reasonable proportion (25; 29%) of the bites reported here.