Dog Bite | Animal Behavior Expert Witness For Attorneys

Richard H. Polsky, Ph.D. CDBC
Los Angeles, California

“Bringing the science of animal behavior to attorneys”

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Indiana Dog Bite Expert & Animal Behavior Expert Witness

Noteworthy dog bite new stories in Indiana that website author and animal behavior expert Dr. Polsky shares with the readership of dogexpert.com.

Indiana dog bite expert
Dog bite expert Richard Polsky, Ph.D. provides animal behavior expert witness services and testimony for attorneys in Indiana.
  • Analysis of dog bites to children in Indiana. A study reported in the March, 2009 issue of the Journal of Trauma, made analysis of children under 18 years of age treated for dog bite injury at the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. The study focused on the years between 1999 to 2006. The method data collection consisted of extracting relevant data from electronic hospital records. During the eight-year study period, 1347 children were treated for dog bites. Over 90% of the dog bite victims were released from the emergency room after treatment; however, approximately 5% of the victims required inpatient admission, and this was usually because of injury to the head or neck. The majority of the victims were male under eight years of age, and of those victims who required hospitalization, most were under under five years of age. Approximately 1/3 of all children admitted were bitten by a family dog. The cost of rendering medical care to dog bite victims during the study period was $2.15 million.
  • State Farm dog bite statistics for Indiana. According to State Farm Insurance, Indiana ranked #7 on the State Farm list of the top 10 states with the most dog bite incidents and litigation payout in 2012.  State Farm paid $2.7 million in 2012 to dog bite victims in Indiana.  Indiana moved up a notch on State Farm’s list compared with data from 2011, where it was ranked 8th. In 2011, State Farm’s payout to Indiana dog bite victims was about $1 million.
  • Pit bull kills  26-day-old infant with redirected aggression in Lafayette.   Though the circumstances have not yet been thoroughly investigated from an animal behavior perspective it’s  likely that this is an example of redirected aggression. Other examples of redirected aggression have been described on this website.

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