Did you know that there are almost 5 million dog bite victims every year? More than 1,000 people every day seek treatment in emergency rooms for dog bites, the majority of whom are kids! Every year, the insurance industry seems to pay more in health insurance and liability insurance claims for dog bite losses. Annually, dog bites cause more than $1 billion dollars in injury costs, with insurance shouldering (in 2002) $345 million of the burden. These statistics, provided by Dog Bite Law, lend insight as to why insurers can be so concerned about their insureds that own certain breeds of dog.
Certain breeds seem to cause a proportionately higher number of bites. Rottweilers and Pit Bull breeds cause roughly 67% of all dog bite deaths, and according to Dog Bite Law, there are approximately 17 dog-related fatalities annually in the U.S. Children are bitten more than three times more often than adults, and the median age of patients that were bitten is 15 years old. Severe injuries occur almost exclusively in children under 10, and boys (is this a surprise?) aged 5-9 have the highest incident rate!
Consider some of the following numbers and you’ll understand why insurers maintain tight underwriting control when dogs are in the household!
- The face is the most frequent target of dogs, accounting for 77% of all injuries. Postal carriers, interestingly enough, skew the number. 97% of all bites to our mail carriers occur in the lower extremities, and there are an average of 2,851 bitten every year!
- The chances that the victim of a fatal dog attack is a burglar are one in 177; the odds that it will be a child are 7 out of 10 (!!!)
- Dog bite liability claims accounted for almost 25% of all homeowner liability claims, costing insurers roughly $321 million in 2003 (wow)!
- Americans have a 1 in 50 chance of being bitten every year.
- The great majority of dog bites (77%) are dogs that belong to a family member or friend, and most (61%) occur at home or in a familiar place!
This makes it pretty clear that there is good reason for insurers to worry about dogs! So, when your underwriter declines to issue or renew a policy because your insured purchased a wolf-hybrid so his Pit Bull will have a friend to play with during the day, this could be the reason why!
Let us know if you have any “dog stories” and if they have affected your clients…we will post some of the interesting comments!