What three things do auto accidents and dog bites have in common? They’ve both increased since the pandemic. They’re causing an increase in what we pay for insurance. They’re largely preventable.
Dog bites have grown as a serious public health risk, with more than 4.5 million people — mostly children and seniors —bitten each year nationwide. When your dog bites you or a fellow resident of your household, your health plan and checkbook cover the medical costs. When someone who isn’t a resident of your home is bitten by your dog, your home owner policy (and renter policy) pays dog bite medical fees, attorney fees and awarded damages.
Insurers in the U.S. paid out about $1.6 BILLION in dog-related injury claims in 2024, according to data compiled by the Insurance Information Institute. This is up 19% from 2023. The average cost per dog bite claim, around $70,000, is up 86% in the last decade.
During the pandemic, more of us fixed up our homes and got a dog. Too often, dogs were selected based on their appearance or social media videos without truly understanding the breed’s needs and behavioral characteristics. Larger dogs are involved in more reported dog bite incidents with pit bulls involved in more severe and fatal attacks (per both veterinary studies and public health data). All dogs have the potential to bite someone, but when a larger dog bites someone, they go to the hospital; when a chihuahua bites someone, they get a band aid. There are plenty of inexperienced owners of larger and stronger breeds who are unknowingly putting themselves and others in harm’s way. Experts emphasize that rather than breed alone, factors like training, socialization, and supervision determine a dog’s likelihood of biting.
If you have a dog, educate yourself on the breed and on dogs in general. Provide more supervision when your dog and children are together. Learn how to control your dog in public. Understand how your dog shows you it’s experiencing stress. Allow it to have a place to go where it won’t be bothered so it can rest up. And stop making videos of your dog kissing you or your child!
