Man's Best Friend Can Kill

March 25, 2009 — -- Spring is finally here and soon the kids will be out in the warmer weather, running for their lives from the family dog.

That's right, Fido may be man's best friend, but he can also be a bitch, especially during the dog days of summer. A new study out of the State University of New York at Buffalo shows that young children are more likely to be bitten by a dog during the summer than any other time of the year, and the beast is most likely to be the family pet or a pet of a friend.

The study doesn't explain exactly why the summer months are more dangerous, although it suggests it's likely due partly to the fact that kids are outdoors more during the summer, and thus more exposed to dogs. And a very young child may run in jerky, irregular patterns that resemble the flight of prey.

It's also likely, according to the study, that dogs, like a lot of humans, can be a bit more grouchy when they are uncomfortably warm.

"Children are particularly vulnerable to severe dog bite injuries on the head and neck, and the injuries can be extensive and a risk to life, especially in young children," Philomena Behar, clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology in the university's school of medicine, said in releasing the study. Behar is the lead author of the study, published in the current issue of the journal Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.

The researchers studied the hospital records of 84 children who suffered dog bites severe enough to be treated at the university's hospital. The injuries occurred from 1999 to 2007, and the average age was 6.19 years. There are a number of gaps in the study because some information, like the breed and gender of the dog, was not always included in the records.

But of the breeds that were identified, "pit bulls were responsible for a notable proportion of the injuries (13 percent,)" the study reports. That's consistent with a number of other studies that cite pit bulls and Rottweilers as the breeds most likely to inflict serious injuries.

But some researchers caution that these breeds are thought by many to be vicious, and thus, more easily identified, tainting the statistics to an unknown degree.