My study of
dog bite - related
fatalities occurring
over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership / management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining
dogs, and maintaining them as resident
dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding / protection, fighting, intimidation / status); owners failing to humanely contain, control and maintain their
dogs (chained
dogs, loose roaming
dogs, cases of abuse / neglect); owners failing to knowledgably supervise interaction between children and
dogs; and owners failing to spay or neuter
dogs not used for competition, show, or in a responsible breeding program.
«Based on an analysis of all DBRFs (
dog bite related
fatalities) known to have occurred
over a ten - year period, the researchers identified a striking co-occurrence of multiple, controllable factors: