Animal attack

Short description: Violent attacks caused by non-human animals against humans

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File:Report dog bites LCCN93511152.tif

Animal attacks are violent attacks caused by non-human animals against humans, one of the most common being bites. These attacks are a cause of human injuries and fatalities worldwide.[1] According to the 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook, 56% of United States citizens owned a pet.[2] In the United States in 1994, approximately 4.7 million people were bitten by dogs.[3] The frequency of animal attacks varies with geographical location, as well as hormonal secretion. Gonad glands found on the anterior side of the pituitary gland secrete androgen and estrogen hormones. Animals with high levels of these hormones, which depending on the species can be a seasonal occurrence, such as during rutting season, tend to be more aggressive, which leads to a higher frequency of attacks not only to humans but among themselves.[4] In the United States, a person is more likely to be killed by a domesticated dog than they are to die from being hit by lightning according to the National Safety Council.[5]

Animal attacks have been identified as a major public health problem. In 1997, it was estimated that up to 2 million animal bites occur each year in the United States.[6] Injuries caused by animal attacks result in thousands of fatalities worldwide every year.[7] "Unprovoked attacks occur when the animal approaches and attacks a person(s) who is the principal attractant, for example, predation on humans ..."[8][9] All causes of death are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each year. Medical injury codes are used to identify specific cases.[6] The World Health Organization uses identical coding, though it is unclear whether all countries keep track of animal-related fatalities. Though animals, excluding some tigers, do not regularly hunt humans, there is concern that these incidents are "bad for many species 'public image'."

## Contents

* 1 Epidemiology and injuries
* 2 Infections
* 3 Treatments
* 4 Medical codes for animal attacks
* 5 Notable deaths
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 Further reading
* 9 External links

## Epidemiology and injuries

Animal bites are the most common form of injury from animal attacks. The U.S. estimated annual count of animal bites is 250,000 human bites, 1 to 2 million dog bites, 400,000 cat bites, and 45,000 bites from snakes.[2] Bites from skunks, horses, squirrels, rats, rabbits, pigs, and monkeys may be up to one percent of bite injuries. Unprovoked pet ferret attacks have caused serious facial injuries. Non-domesticated animals, although often assumed to be more common, especially as a cause of rabies infection, make up less than one percent of reported bite wounds. Bites to the right arm are the most likely due to defensive reactions when the victim uses their dominant arm. The most common location for fatal bites is on the individual's head.[10] It is estimated that three-quarters of bites to humans are to the arms or legs. Bites to the face constitute only ten percent of total bites. Children aged ten and younger suffer two-thirds of reported bite injuries. Bite injuries are often the result of an animal attack, including instances when a human attacks another human. Human bites are the third most frequent type of bite after dog and cat bites.[11] Dog bites are commonplace, with children the most frequently bitten and the face and scalp the most common targets.[12]

## Infections

Animal bites carry an increased risk of infection due to their exposure to rabies and different bacteria that animals have in their oral cavity. Microbiological studies are carried out to determine some of these infections. Frequently these infections are polymicrobial with different mixtures of aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms. Some of the bacteria identified by the remains that are maintained in the bites and by exposure to other variables and change of physical environment are: Pasturella spp., Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Moraxella, Corynebacterium, Neisseria, Fusobacterium, Bacteroides, Posphuomonoa, Capnocytophaga canimorsus, and Prevotella.[13]

## Treatments

Treatment for those who have been attacked depends on the injuries. Though trauma may be addressed first, subsequent infections are also treated with appropriate antibiotics.[11] The use of prophylactic antibiotics can significantly reduce the risk of a serious infection in the lesion.[14] It is important to visit a doctor if the bite is severe. Up to three-quarters of dog bites happen to those younger than 20 years old. In the United States, the costs associated with dog bites are estimated at over $1 billion annually. The age groups that suffer most from dog bites are children 5 to 9 years old. Often bites go unreported and receive no medical treatment. Up to one percent of pediatric emergency room visits are for animal bites. This is more frequent during the summer months. Up to five percent of children receiving emergency care for dog bites are hospitalized. Bites typically occur in the late afternoon and early evening. Girls are bitten more frequently by cats than by dogs, while boys are bitten by dogs two times more often than are girls.[11] To prevent serious and even fatal infections, rabies vaccines for both humans and non-human animals are recommended, even if the person is not directly exposed to the infection. In addition, it is essential to know and consider the probability of transmission, the animal that caused the bite, the type and severity of the injury, and the age and overall health of the victim. In 1936, amputation was required in a third of cases in which treatment was delayed for 24 hours or longer.[11]

## Medical codes for animal attacks

Injuries resulting from encounters with animals occur with sufficient frequency to require the use of medical codes by clinicians and insurance companies to document such encounters. The ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Codes are used for the purpose of clearly identifying diseases, their causes, injuries in the United States. Clinicians use these codes to quantify the medical condition and its causes and to bill insurance companies for the treatment required as a result of encounters with animals.

Code  | Description

|

W53  | Contact with rodent
W54  | Contact with dog
W55  | Contact with other mammals
W56  | Contact with non-venomous marine animal
W57  | Bitten or stung by non-venomous insect and other non-venomous arthropods
W58  | Contact with crocodile or alligator
W59  | Contact with other non-venomous reptiles
W61  | Contact with birds (domestic) (wild)
W62  | Contact with non-venomous amphibians
Reference:[15]

## Notable deaths

Year  | Name  | Age  | Details

|
|
|

ca 1000 BC  | Parikshit  | n.a.  | Bit by a snake
30 BC  | Cleopatra  | 39 years  | Bit by a snake (suicide)
519  | Conleth  | ~60 years  | Killed by wolves
912  | Oleg the Wise  | n.a.  | Bit by a snake
ca 1500  | Lakṣmīpriyā | n.a.  | Bit by a snake
1528  | Tenali Rama  | 47 years  | Bit by a snake
1582  | Crocodiles in Pskov  | various  | A number of crocodiles escaped from captivity to a local river, then reportedly attacked and devoured many city residents[16]
1787  | Two-Headed Boy of Bengal  | 4 years  | Bit by a snake
1852  | HMS Birkenhead | various  | Hundreds of sharks attacked sinking ship sailors. A few hundred men were killed
1898  | Lions of Tsavo  | various  | A pair of lions attacked rail workers' camps for months. Killed 30-125 men
1913  | Carl Hagenbeck  | 57 years  | Bit by a snake
1920  | King Alexander of Greece  | 27 years  | Monkey bite
1932  | Bill Pickett  | 61 years  | killed by a horse kick
1942  | USS Juneau | various  | Sharks attacked sinking ship sailors, including remaining Sullivan brothers
1945  | USS Indianapolis | various  | Hundreds of sharks attacked sinking ship sailors. A few dozen to 150 men were killed
1945  | Battle of Ramree Island  | various  | Number of saltwater crocodiles attacked retreating Japanese soldiers. A few to hundreds were killed
1948  | Grace Olive Wiley  | 65 years  | Bitten by a snake
1950  | Kevin Budden  | 20 years  | Bitten by a taipan snake
1955  | George Hensley  | 74 years  | Bit by a snake
1957  | Karl Patterson Schmidt  | 67 years  | Bit by a snake
1975  | Robert Mertens  | 81 years  | Bit by a snake
1980  | Azaria Chamberlain  | 2 months  | Attacked by a dingo[17]
1982  | Jean Batten  | 73 years  | Infection from a dog bite
1993  | John Pickard  | 80 years  | killed by a bull on his family farm
1994  | Allen Campbell  | 37 years  | Crushed by circus elephant Tyke
1994  | Rick Lomba  | 44 years  | Attacked by Bengal Tiger
2001  | Joseph Bruno Slowinski  | 38 years  | Bitten by a Suzhen's krait
2001  | Diane Whipple  | 33 years  | Attacked by 2 dogs
2001  | Jacky Boxberger  | 51 years  | Attacked by an elephant on a safari
2003  | Timothy Treadwell  | 46 years  | Devoured by a bear[18]
2003  | Vitaly Nikolayenko  | 65 years  | Mauled by a bear[19]
2004  | Boonreung Buachan  | 35 years  | Bit by a cobra during a show
2005  | Kenton Joel Carnegie  | 22 years  | Killed by wolves
2006  | Richard Root  | 68 years  | Killed by a crocodile
2006  | Steve Irwin  | 44 years  | Killed by a stingray during a diving expedition[20]
2006  | Ali Khan Samsudin  | 48 years  | Bitten by a king cobra[21]
2007  | Surinder Singh Bajwa  | 44 years  | Attacked by a group of rhesus macaques at his home and fell from a first-floor balcony
2008  | Stephan Miller  | 39 years  | killed by a bear while making a promotional video
2009  | Alexis Martínez  | 29 years  | killed by an orca (named Keto) in an aquarium
2009  | Taylor Mitchell  | 19 years  | Coyote attack[22]
2010  | Dawn Brancheau  | 40 years  | Killed by orca Tilikum
2011  | Horatio Chapple  | 17 years[23] | Killed by a polar bear on an Arctic expedition
2011  | Mathieu Schiller  | 32 years  | Killed by a shark
2013  | Noah and Connor Barthe  | 4 & 6 years  | Strangled by a friend's father's pet African rock python
2014  | Jamie Coots  | 42 years  | Bit by a rattlesnake
2015  | Katherine Chappell  | 29 years  | Killed by a lioness while visiting a park
2017  | Akbar Salubiro  | 25 years  | Killed and swallowed by a reticulated python

## See also

* 2010 Sharm el-Sheikh shark attacks
* 2013 New Brunswick python attack
* CrocBITE
* Fatal dog attacks in the United States
* Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916
* Kali River goonch attacks
* Kenton Joel Carnegie wolf attack
* List of deadliest animals to humans
* St. James Davis Chimpanzee Attack
* Porphyrios (whale), a whale that killed Roman Sailors for half a century.

## References

1. ↑ "Animal bites" (in en-GB). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs373/en/.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bula-Rudas, Fernando J.; Olcott, Jessica L. (2018-10-01). "Human and Animal Bites" (in en). Pediatrics in Review 39 (10): 490–500. doi:10.1542/pir.2017-0212. ISSN 0191-9601. PMID 30275032. https://pedsinreview.aappublications.org/content/39/10/490.
3. ↑ "Dog-Bite-Related Fatalities -- United States, 1995-1996". U.S. Center for Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00047723.htm.
4. ↑ Svare, Bruce B. (2013-03-07) (in en). Hormones and Aggressive Behavior. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4613-3521-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=fkrhBwAAQBAJ&q=aggressive+animal+behavior&pg=PA3.
5. ↑ "Injury Facts Chart". National Safety Council. http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/injury-facts-chart.aspx.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Langley, Ricky L.; Morrow, William E. (1997). "Deaths resulting from animal attacks in the United States". Wilderness and Environmental Medicine 8 (1): 8–16. doi:10.1580/1080-6032(1997)008[0008:drfaai2.3.co;2]. PMID 11990139.
7. ↑ Warrell, D.A. (1993). "Venomous bites and stings in the tropical world". Medical Journal of Australia 159 (11–12): 773–779. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1993.tb141345.x. PMID 8264466.
8. ↑ Angelici, Francesco (2016). Problematic Wildlife: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach. Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-22246-2.
9. ↑ "Animal bites". World Health Organization. February 2013. https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs373/en/.
10. ↑ Clark, Michael A.; Sandusky, George E.; Hawley, Dean A.; Pless, John E.; Fardal, Patrick M.; Tate, Larry R. (1991-07-01). "Fatal and Near-Fatal Animal Bite Injuries". Journal of Forensic Sciences 36 (4): 1256–61. doi:10.1520/jfs13146j. ISSN 0022-1198. PMID 1919485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1520/jfs13146j.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Cherry, James (2014). Feigin and Cherry's Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases – Animal and Human Bites, Morven S. Edwards. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier/Saunders. ISBN 978-1-4557-1177-2. Access provided by the University of Pittsburgh
12. ↑ Chen, Henry; Neumeier, Anna; Davies, Brett; Durairaj, Vikram (3 September 2013). "Analysis of Pediatric Facial Dog Bites". Craniomaxillofacial Trauma and Reconstruction 6 (4): 225–232. doi:10.1055/s-0033-1349211. PMID 24436765.
13. ↑ Goldstein, E J; Citron, D M (1988-08-01). "Comparative activities of cefuroxime, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, and ofloxacin against aerobic and anaerobic bacteria isolated from bite wounds". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 32 (8): 1143–1148. doi:10.1128/aac.32.8.1143. ISSN 0066-4804. PMID 3190202.
14. ↑ Boat, Barbara W. (2019). "Dog Bites to Children: Family Interventions and Prevention Strategies". Clinician's Guide to Treating Companion Animal Issues. Elsevier. pp. 35–46. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-812962-3.00003-4. ISBN 978-0-12-812962-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-812962-3.00003-4. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
15. ↑ "Exposure to animate mechanical forces, W50-W64". World Health Organization. https://icd.who.int/browse10/2015/en#/W50-W64.
16. ↑ Pskov chronicles for 1582 contain such paragraph: "In the year 7090 [1582] ... That same year, crocodiles, fierce beasts, came from the [ Velikaya ] river, and coming across, devoured many people. People got frightened, and prayed to God across the land. Some went into hiding for a while, some were killed." Original text (Russian): «Того ж лета изыдоша коркодили лютии звери из реки, и путь затвориша, людей много поядоша. И ужасошася людие и молиша бога по всей земли. И паки спряташася, а иних избиша.…». Cited in Pskov Chronicles,1955, Vol. 2, P. 262, and in the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles, 1841, Vol. 3, P. 320.
17. ↑ Cunneen, Chris. "Chamberlain, Azaria Chantel (1980–1980)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chamberlain-azaria-chantel-9719. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
18. ↑ "Timothy Treadwell Devoted His Life To Grizzly Bears — Until They Ate Him". April 13, 2018. https://allthatsinteresting.com/timothy-treadwell.
19. ↑ "Russian bear researcher dies in apparent mauling". January 1, 2004. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-01-01-0401010214-story.html.
20. ↑ "Steve Irwin" (in en-us). https://www.biography.com/personality/steve-irwin.
21. ↑ "Snake man dies from cobra bite". Dec 4, 2006. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1536000/Snake-man-dies-from-cobra-bite.html.
22. ↑ "Emily Mitchell Commemorates Life of Songbird Daughter". http://www.taylormitchell.ca/.
23. ↑ "Horatio Chapple death: explorers' attempts to fight off polar bear attack". July 18, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/18/horatio-chapple-death-polar-bear-attack.

## Further reading

* Anderson, Knenneth, et al., "The Man-Eater of Jowlagiri", from Nine Man-Eaters and One Rogue, 1955
* Anitei, Stefan. "The Limits of the Human Nose: How much can a human smell?" Softpedia. 22 January 2007. 17 November 2008.
* Batin, Christopher. "Bear Attacks!" Outdoor Life 210.6 (2003): 46.
* Brandt, Anthony. "Attack". Outdoor Life 197.1 (1996): 52.
* Cardall, Taylor Y. and Peter Rosen. "Grizzly Bear Attack". The Journal of Emergency Medicine 24.3 (2003): 331–333.
* Driscoll, Jamus. "Bears on the Rampage". Outdoor Life 197.2 (1996): 20.
* Egerton, L. ed. 2005. Encyclopaedia of Australian wildlife. Reader's Digest ISBN 1-876689-34-X
* Fergus, Charles. Wild Guide: Bears. Mechanicsburg, PA; Stackpole Books, 2005.
* Guo, Shuzhong, et al., "Human facial allotransplantation: a 2-year follow-up study". The Lancet 372.9639 (2008): 631–638.
* Masterson, Linda. Living with Bears. Masonville, CO; PixyJack Press, LLC, 2006.
* Linnell, John D.C., et al.,The Fear of Wolves – review of wolf attacks on humans
* Ward, Paul and Suzanne Kynaston. Wild Bears of the World. United Kingdom: Cassell plc, 1995
* Whitman, David. "The Return of the Grizzly". Atlantic Monthly 286.3 (2000): 26–31.

## External links

* NCIPC bibliography of articles on dog bites Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
* Animal bites, World Health Organization
* CrocBITE
* "Fatal Alligator Attacks". Southeastern Outdoors. http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/wildlife/reptiles/fatal-alligator-attacks.html.

* v
* t
* e

Animal bites and stings (X20, E900–E909)

Arthropod bites
and stings|

| Arachnid|

* Demodex mite bite
* Scorpion sting
* Spider bite / Arachnidism
* Latrodectism
* Loxoscelism

|

Insect bites and stings|

* Ant sting
* Bee sting
* Cimicosis
* Mosquito bite
* Pulicosis
* Reduviid bite

Myriapoda|

* Centipede bite
* Millipede burn

Vertebrate|

* Alligator attack
* Bear attack
* Beaver attack
* Boar attack
* Cougar attack
* Cat bite
* Coyote attack
* Crocodile attack
* Dingo attack
* Dog attack
* Killer whale attack
* Leopard attack
* Lion attack
* Monkey bite
* Piranha fish attack
* Shark attack
* Snakebite
* Stingray attack
* Stonefish attack
* Tiger attack
* Venomous fish
* Walrus attack
* Wolf attack

Other|

* Animal attacks
* Bristleworm sting
* Cephalopod attack
* Cone snail sting
* Coral dermatitis
* Dog bite prevention
* Hydroid dermatitis
* Jellyfish dermatitis / Jellyfish sting
* Leech bite
* Man-eater
* Portuguese man-of-war dermatitis
* Sea anemone dermatitis
* Sea urchin injury
* Seabather's eruption

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