Family pets lead attacks

Donelle Whiu, pictured here with her mastiff Leo, says education is the only way to reduce number of dog bites in children. Photo / APN

They might be man's best friend, but dogs are constantly biting the hand that feeds them.

Preliminary results of new research show nearly 90 per cent of children savaged by dogs in Auckland in the past year were bitten by the family pet or a canine known to them.

Middlemore Hospital paediatric emergency charge nurse and dog behaviorist Donelle Whiu is just three weeks away from completing a year-long research project.

She has been investigating the circumstances around how children aged under 15 years - who have presented with dog bites at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland's major centre for plastic surgery - were attacked.

She says in recent weeks reports of maulings in public have made big headlines but that is not the predominant place where children are being attacked. Her preliminary results show that 86.9 per cent of children were bitten by the family dog or a canine known to them - like a neighbour's or relative's pet.

She believes the key to combating most bites is educating young children about how to keep safe around dogs.

The Government has knocked her back for funding to do prevention talks in kindergartens and primary schools (with her 90kg dog Leo) so she is now seeking a corporate sponsor.

"Everyone has got dogs and everyone has got kids ... so someone has to be motivated to do something about this," says the 36-year-old mum.

Meanwhile, her research has produced other interesting facts. Manurewa is the dog-bite centre of Auckland but all socio-economic groups are showing in the data.

The most bitten were children aged under 9 years with 45 victims in this age group. Included in the statistics were 23 victims aged under 4 while the remaining 10 victims were aged between 10 and 15.

Another trend that Whiu spotted was the younger the victim the more likely they were to be bitten around the face and head. "It's usually a warning bite. But because the toddlers are at the dog's face level then the bites tend to predominantly be on the face," she says.

She says supervision appears to be "a huge issue" with 57 per cent of kids unsupervised by someone 18 years or over when they were attacked. That needs to change.

Though 65 per cent of reported dog breeds that attacked were pitbull or staffy, she says bans on those will not solve the issue.

It will just drive owners of these dogs underground.

She reiterates that the key to preventing bites is educating the public.

Whiu says key safety messages include supervising kids around dogs and not letting them close to canines that are eating, sleeping or playing with their own toy.

Dog owners should also socialise their dogs properly and teach them who is in charge.