A survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand

Figures & data

Table 1. Relationship of the dog's owner to the bite victim (n=529), in a survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand.

Dog's owner	Percentage
Stranger	36.2
Respondent (victim)	18.9
Friend	14.0
Other^a	11.0
Neighbour	10.0
Family member not living with the victim	5.1
Family member living with the victim	4.2
Flatmate	0.6
^a Other is a client of the victim

Table 2. Percentage of people bitten on the arm, hand, leg or multiple parts of the body, and the sex of the biting dog, in a survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand^a.

Sex of dog	Site of dog bite
Arm	Hand	Leg	Other^b	Sub-total	Multiple bites^c	Total %
Male	50	52	42	55	48	41	47
Female	18	34	18	25	24	24	24
Unsure	32	14	40	21	28	36	29
Total n	74	154	196	44	468	59	527
^a Rounding of percentages results in some column totals ≠ 100%
^b Other includes bites to the buttocks
^c Multiple bites are listed separately, to maintain statistical independence

Table 3. Frequency and percentage of bites by breed of dog (n=529), in a survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand.

Breed	n	Percentage
Mixed	140	26.5
Other breed (n=44)	135	25.5
Unknown	75	14.2
German Shepherd	42	7.9
Pitbull Terrier	34	6.4
Rottweiler	30	5.7
Jack Russell Terrier	22	4.1
Labrador	14	2.6
Border Collie	13	2.5
Blue Heeler	12	2.3
Bull Terrier	12	2.3

Table 4. The percentage of dog bites attributed to different reasons, as suggested by the respondent or the researcher, in a survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand^a.

Reason	Percentage of bites
	Respondent^b	Researcher
Protect territory	21.7	31.4
Unsure	21.5	16.2
Accident	14.2	16.0
Dog afraid	8.2	9.0
Dog in pain	5.7	6.6
Protect person	3.4	5.3
Play	4.5	5.1
Protect item	3.2	2.6
Protect puppies	1.9	1.9
Other	15.7	6.0
n	530	532
^a Rounding of percentages results in some column totals ≠ 100%
^b Not all respondents gave a reason for their bites but in two cases the researchers were able to use the respondent's description of events to give a likely reason for the bite

Table 5. Percentage of people bitten by a dog on different parts of the body, with the reason for the bite, in a survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand^a.

Reason^b	Part of body bitten						n
	Arm	Hand	Leg	Face	Other^c	Multiple
Territorial	14	12	51	1	8	14	167
Unsure	17	14	45	6	11	8	85
Accident	12	61	24	0	0	4	84
Fear	17	46	19	6	2	10	48
Pain	12	44	3	18	0	24	34
Other	12	31	41	3	3	12	111
n	72	154	198	18	27	60	529
^a Rounding of percentages results in some column totals ≠ 100%
^b Determined by researchers based on the respondent's description of events
^c Other includes bites to the buttocks

Table 6. The top five reasons, expressed as a percentage, for dogs to bite, with the sex of the dog responsible, in a survey of adult victims of dog bites in New Zealand.

Sex of dogs	Reason for bite^a					Total %
	Protect territory	Unsure	Accident	Dog afraid	Dog in pain
Male	43	48	49	48	51	47
Female	13	19	39	21	49	23
Unsure	44	33	12	31	0	30
Total n	164	85	84	48	35	416
^a Determined by researchers based on the respondent's description of events