Dog bites can happen for many reasons. Sometimes, the dog is playing, and things get a little too rough. Sometimes, the dog simply misunderstands someone’s actions or intentions. Sometimes dog bites happen because they have negligent owners. When dogs are neglected, mistreated, or improperly trained, they can lash out and become aggressive. Thus, when dog bites do happen, they can range from a nip to a deadly attack. The cost of dog bites, from the nips to the vicious attacks, can be extremely expensive.
Losses From Dog Bites
The losses or damages resulting from dog bites include various injury types. Some of these include:
- Scarring
- Infection from rabies or C. diff bacteria
- Broken digits and bones
- Medical expenses
- Severe lacerations, and
- Death
- finger, arm, toe, and leg degloving injury.
All of these losses may be claimed against the dog owner’s insurance when the evidence establishes that the owner was either negligent or that the dog had bitten someone else before.
The Cost of Fixing the Damage
Scar revision surgeries are a common way to deal with unsightly scars left behind due to a dog bite. These are particularly common when the scar is in a highly visible area like the face. In 2019, 28,384 reconstructive surgeries were performed to repair the damage done by dog bites, according to the Plastic Surgery Statistics Report of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons National Clearing House of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Statistics. That amounted to 16% of all plastic surgeries performed that year for any reason. We have seen the repair costs range from a few thousand dollars to upwards of $30,000 for a single scar. These costs must be factored in by lawyers who represent dog bite victims on behalf of their clients so that the dog owner’s insurance company can be held liable for the full extent of the damages.
The National Cost of Dog Bite Claims
According to an annual study performed by the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm, 17,802 claims were made against homeowner’s insurance policies in 2019. It cost insurance companies 797 million dollars to settle those claims. That is an average cost of $44,760.00 per claim. California was the state with the most dog bite claims against insurance companies. Texas was not far behind. Unfortunately, according to the U.S. Post Office’s annual report, Houston led the country in dog bites by postal workers in 2019. This resulted in them naming Houston the “Dog Bite Capital of the World.”
Effect on Homeowner’s Insurance
The cost of dog bites has two effects on homeowner’s insurance. One is that many homeowner’s insurance policies exclude injuries caused by dogs. Some exclude attacks from specific breeds, such as chow attacks, pitbull attacks, rottweiler attacks, or Doberman pinscher attacks. This leaves the owner stuck paying the bills. The other effect is the same as living in a city where there are many car wrecks—the insurance rates go up for everyone.
Sadly, many of these incidents are easily preventable if the owners take better precautions to keep their dogs from getting loose.
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