Dog bites are a significant public health and animal welfare issue. Most bites are preventable with better education, supervision, and responsible ownership practices.
Dog bite prevention is simultaneously a human safety and animal welfare issue. Dogs that bite are often reacting to stress, fear, or pain that has not been recognized or addressed. When bites occur, dogs frequently pay with their lives for failures of human education and supervision. Preventing bites requires teaching children to read dog body language, educating owners about stress signals, ensuring dogs have appropriate socialization and training, and creating the conditions in which dogs are not pushed beyond their tolerance. This is primarily an education and public health challenge.