Nearly 77 million nice dogs…but any dog can bite

National Dog Bite Prevention Week® takes place during the second full week of April each year, and focuses on educating people about preventing dog bites. The dates in 2020 are April 12-18.

With an estimated population of nearly 77 million dogs living in U.S. households, millions of people—most of them children—are bitten by dogs every year. The majority of these bites, if not all, are preventable.

• In 2017 there were nearly 350,000 people treated at hospital emergency rooms for non-fatal dog-related injuries.
• Of those people, there were nearly 10,600 children two years old or younger who visited emergency rooms as a result of dog bites​.
• In 2018, insurers paid $675 million in claims related to dog bites, according to estimates from the Insurance Information Institute.