Open AccessThe effect of breed-specific dog legislation on hospital treated dog bites in Odense, Denmark—A time series intervention study
Author(s) -
Finn Nilson,
John Damsager,
Jens Lauritsen,
Carl Bonander
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0208393
Subject(s) - legislation , breed , dog bite , medicine , poison control , injury prevention , intervention (counseling) , occupational safety and health , suicide prevention , psychological intervention , veterinary medicine , environmental health , demography , medical emergency , biology , zoology , political science , nursing , law , pathology , sociology , rabies
As dog bite injuries are a considerable problem in modern society, in order to reduce such injuries, breed-specific legislation has been introduced in a number of countries. Whilst many studies have shown a lack of effect with such legislation, the commonly used methodology is known to be flawed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the Danish breed-specific legislation on the number of dog bite injuries using more credible methods. A time series intervention method was used on a detailed dataset from Odense University Hospital, Denmark, regarding dog bite injuries presented to the emergency department. The results indicate that banning certain breeds has a highly limited effect on the overall levels of dog bite injuries, and that an enforcement of the usage of muzzle and leash in public places for these breeds also has a limited effect. Despite using more credible and sound methods, this study supports previous studies showing that breed-specific legislation seems to have no effect on dog bite injuries. In order to minimise dog bite injuries in the future, it would seem that other interventions or non-breed-specific legislation should be considered as the primary option.