Elsevier

Journal of Veterinary Behavior

Volume 2, Issue 5, September–October 2007, Pages 166-174
Journal of Veterinary Behavior

Research
Spanish dangerous animals act: Effect on the epidemiology of dog bites

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2007.07.010Get rights and content

Abstract

The effectiveness and suitability of legislation regarding the issue of dangerous dogs, especially those targeting so-called “dangerous breeds” (DB), have been the object of a lot of criticism. However, the shortage of scientific studies in this field makes an objective assessment of the impact of current legislation difficult. In the present study, dog bite-related incidents from Aragón (Spain) were analyzed for a 10-year periods (1995 to 2004). With the aim of assessing the impact of the Spanish Dangerous Animals Act on the epidemiology of dog bites, data from the non-legislated (1995 to 1999) and the legislated period (2000 to 2004) were compared in 2 different areas (low- and high-populated areas). According to the results, the population density did exert a significant effect on the incidence of dog bites, whereas the legislation in force did not. Popular breeds such as the German shepherd and crossbreed dogs accounted for the great majority of the incidents during the 2 periods of study. Specifically, the German shepherd proved to be over-represented significantly among the canine population. Dogs in the dangerous breeds list, on the other hand, were involved in a small proportion of the incidents both before and after the introduction of legislation. The present results suggest that the implementation of the Spanish legislation exerted little impact on the epidemiology of dog bites. Besides the scarce effectiveness, the results suggest that the criteria to regulate only so-called DB were unsuitable and unjustified. It is hoped that this study will be helpful in the elaboration of future regulation measures in this matter.

Introduction

Dogs are considered one of the favorite pets in modern industrialized societies. Despite the important psychologic, physical, and social benefits derived from living with a dog (McNicholas and Collis, 2000, Wells, 2007), the ability to occasionally bite people has made these animals become the focus of a public health and security challenge (Overall and Love, 2001, Palacio et al., 2005, Morgan and Palmer, 2007). In addition, a great number of dogs that show aggressive behavior are abandoned or euthanized, which poses problems in the field of animal welfare (Hunthausen, 1997, Mikkelsen and Lund, 2000).

Canine aggression directed toward people has given rise to an enormous interest both in the media and in the scientific literature during the last 2 decades. Moreover, the problem has pervaded political spheres and several countries in Europe, North America, and Australia have regulated dog ownership with the aim of reducing the number of people injured by dog bites and prevent new episodes (Butcher et al., 2002, Ledger et al., 2005, Collier, 2006).

Two kinds of legislation have been developed in this regard. The first type of legislation is Breed Specific Legislation (BSL), which is based on a series of regulations, including banning measures, applied to the so-called “dangerous breeds” (DB). It is thought that the elaboration of DB lists has been influenced to a large extent by biases in the media and the subsequent social alarm in response to fatal dog attacks. The second type of legislation, non-Breed Specific Legislation (nBSL), includes different regulation measures to promote responsible dog ownership regardless of the animal breed.

Most countries apply BSL as a first response, and complement it with characteristic nBSL measures (De Meester, 2004). According to the literature, BSL has not been proven effective in decreasing the number of people injured by dog bites (Ledger et al., 2005, Collier, 2006, Kuhne and Struwe, 2006) nor in preventing fatal dog attacks (Sacks et al., 2000). However, it is difficult to assess the effect of a particular type of legislation reliably due to the scarce scientific studies and data in this field. With this purpose, studies over long periods of time both before and after the introduction of the legislation should be carried out (De Meester, 2004). To our knowledge, only the study by Klaassen et al. (1996) has been carried out in this way, but it is important to note that a relatively brief period of time (3 months) was assessed. This study showed that the implementation of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in the UK had limited effect on the rate of patients treated for dog bites in 1 urban Accident and Emergency department.

According to several studies based on data from both hospitals and public health departments, the so-called DB contribute to only a few of the dog bite-related incidents (Kahn et al., 2003, León, 2006). This finding contradicts the belief that these breeds are more dangerous and discredits DB lists. There are, however, no published data that show the effectiveness of nBSL over BSL (De Meester, 2004). This shows the necessity of carrying out more comparative scientific studies in this field.

The problems posed by dog attacks toward people in Spain (Knobel et al., 1997, Méndez et al., 2002; León-Artozqui et al., 2004) gave rise to specific legislation in 1999 (Spanish Dangerous Animals Act: Ley 50/1999). At first, the act opted for the principles of nBSL, but in 2002 (RD 287/2002), this regulation was ammended with the inclusion of a DB list.

The aim of this study was to assess, in an objective way, the effect of the Spanish Dangerous Animals Act on the epidemiology of dog bites and to discuss the effectiveness and suitability of legislation regarding the issue of dangerous dogs. The study analyzed epidemiologic data of medically-attended dog bites, comparing those belonging to the periods before (1995 to 1999) and after (2000 to 2004) the introduction of legislation. Furthermore, the effect of both the nBSL and the BSL was assessed. To this end, 2 main parameters were used: first, the incidence of dog bite-related incidents in 2 different areas, namely areas of low and high population density; second, the relative proportion of involved breeds. In addition, a breed-related risk factor analysis was carried out.

Section snippets

Materials

Dog bite-related incidents reported between 1995 and 2004 to the Public Health Department of Aragón (Spain) were collected using the Rabies Control and Prevention Programme. According to this program, the health staff from the Public Health centre where the victim is attended (i.e., primary care center, emergency department, etc.) fills out a record with information related to the incident and then reports it to the Public Health department. Subsequently, the dog is subjected to an observation

Results

A total of 4,186 dog bite-related incidents were registered during the course of the period of study, 1,877 during the first 5-year period (1995 to 1999) and 2,309 during the second one (2000 to 2004). Breed information was available in 48.7% (n = 915) of collected cases during the first period and in 52.1% (n = 1203) during the second one.

Annual incidences from 1995 to 2004 together with the evolution of canine population during this period are represented in Figure 1. The following incidence

Discussion

In the present study, the impact of the Spanish Dangerous Animals Act (50/1999, R.D. 287/2002) on the epidemiology of dog bite-related incidents was assessed. It is important to note that this study deals only with medically-attended dog bites.

According to the results, the implementation of nBSL measures and the subsequent DB list did not exert a significant effect on the incidence of dog bites during the non-legislated period. Because this finding was observed both in the region's capital area

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the DGA (Diputación General de Aragón) and especially, Dr. Luis Colón and Fernando Carrera, for the inestimable help in providing material for the present study. We also thank Dr. Ignacio de Blas for his valued advice on statistical analysis and María Yetano for the enriching proof-reading support.

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