Fatal and Near-Fatal Animal Bite Injuries

Abstract

Fatal and near-fatal maulings of humans by pit bulls have recently become a topic of major public concern, resulting in the passage of laws in some jurisdictions that make the owner of a pit bull criminally liable for manslaughter if his or her pet causes a human death. The authors recently investigated two cases in which children were fatally injured by pet dogs. In the first case, a 17-day-old girl suffered fatal abdominal injuries when attacked by a pregnant Siberian husky. A 2-year-old girl expired from neck wounds inflicted by a pit bull or a rottweiler or both. Because no expert would testify as to which dog caused the fatal injury, the owner of the animals was not charged under a statute which specified criminality only if a pit bull caused the fatal injury. We also examined a 12-year-old boy who attempted to pet a circus tiger; the animal grabbed his arm with its claws and bit off the arm at the shoulder. The arm could not be reattached, but the child survived. These cases and the differentiation of animal bites from other injuries will be presented.

Indoor postmortem animal interference by carnivores and rodents: report of two cases and review of the literature

“…In case 2, the size and depth of the v-shaped and rhomboid-shaped punctured wounds adjacent to the damaged edges are typical for teeth marks caused by a large dog [18][19][20][21][22] and were inflicted by a pit bull terrier found at the scene. Stab wound-like bite marks are diagnostic for canine dentition of carnivore origin [5,6,23,24].…”

Vertebral arterial injury due to fatal dog bites

“…There may be wide gaps between the impressions made by the different teeth. 20 The bite-mark analysis was considered to be useful in this case.…”

Reality Bites – Demystifying Crime

“…A bite mark has been defined as 'a pattern produced by human or animal dentitions and associated structures in any substance capable of being marked by these mean's [5]. Human bite-marks are one among the most violent crimes tried in the criminal courts.…”