 |
Quite simply, there are no current national data available
on the number of victims of dog bites. The CCC's surveys of
hospital accident and emergency departments in 1997 are probably
the most accurate ever published. They yielded an estimate
of 63,000 treated injuries annually, with the suggestion that
the total figure could be three times greater. More recent
Home Office data are available on prosecutions, as given below.
|
Number
of defendants prosecuted & convicted at all
courts in England & Wales, 1997-1999
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prosecuted
|
|
Convicted
|
|
492
|
|
98
|
|
|
Prosecuted
|
|
Convicted
|
|
504
|
|
241
|
|
Typical of all data on dog bites, those in the above table
are sparse and give no idea of the scale of the problem in
human terms, nor of the kinds of dog involved. However, they
indicate the two Acts resorted to, even if not all prosecutions
result in convictions. Many prosecutions fail as the result
of interventions by dog organisations.
|
