Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering if anyone has gone and compared the injury statistics of reported dog bites to those of constrictors.

Not trying to rain on dog owners as I have four of them. Just wondering if we could use the numbers to our advantage.

I asked a couple of local officer recently if they have many calls for complaints about large constrictors. Neither one of them had never heard of anything locally. The only times they had come in contact with reptiles in their work were in incidents were the reptiles were not the main reason for their investigation.

Just interested in folks take on this.

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Al... I looked that data up before... I'll try to figure out where I got it.... but you're right .... dogs cause alot more problem... More people are killed by horses every year than any other animal though... But there have been more deaths snnually from people contracting infections from cats than constrictors...
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Marc Duhon
Lafayette, Louisiana
SURINAMBOAS.COM
kaiyudsai@SURINAMBOAS.COM

I use to keep a list of stats from this site and even contacted the owner for permission to use his sites info, which he allowed.

http://www.dogbitelaw.com/
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Randall L Turner Jr.

http://www.dogsbite.org/bite-statistics.htm

CAUTION VERY GRAFIC!!!!!!!!!!Dog bite victim. Do not veiw is you have a week stomach.
Point is I never seen a snake do this.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/768875-media

My best friend growing up was attacked by three pitbulls walking home from school one day. A.J. was very lucky that he balled up and kept the dogs away from his vital organs. He had stiches from his shoulder all the way dow to his but on one side. Pretty scary stuff to see your buddy all laid up from dog bites. Now this was back in 1985 so their has been sometimes, but these incident actually inacted the first Leash Law in the town I grew up in.

Thanks,

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Marc, Funny the only animal bite I have ever gone to the hospital for was a cat bite while working in a vet clinic. Horrible pain and I have been through some real pyshical pain in my life. Been bite by a-lot of stuff too, as I have done some wildlife rehabilitation work. Lots of snake bites they just bleed a-lot! 14' retic got me on the thigh once and that was a mess! No hospital visit though,just a-lot of rubbing alcohol, and my wife laughing at me calling me an idiot.

I blame every bite on myself!AS 99.9% of the time it was me making a bonehead mistake!!!!And they leave me saying DOH!!! Why'd I do that!

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

USARK- Animal Related Fatalities

Al also Boid / Human death stats here @ REXANO

I'll leave the link below

. . . Lar M
Boids in the USA Separating Facts from Fiction

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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org

Another link below
Animal-Related Fatalities in the United States—An Update

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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org

I wish I could say the same... I had to go to the emergency room after a bad retic bite .... Needed several stitches and a vascular surgeon to reconstruct my antecubital veins.... So it does happen... but it is a rare occurance indeed
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Marc Duhon
Lafayette, Louisiana
SURINAMBOAS.COM
kaiyudsai@SURINAMBOAS.COM

OUCH!!!! That doesn't sound very good! I can hontestly say that I only get bite once or twice a year by my subadults/adults. A vast majority of bites are babies to yearlings. I have been keeping blood pythons for 7 years now only been bite once! One bad burm bite and one bad retic bite and that really sums it up for me.

All of the bites as I said before were totally my fault!!!!

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Yeah the bad bite I got from a retic was from a large rather unpredictable fresh import... But I was a little careless and It was my fault...... as far as boas..... I rarely get bitten...... especially by adults.... I have a male that likes to lash out.. but only when he's with the female...... All my BCC seem to be all bark no bite... but they sure can hiss loud...
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Marc Duhon
Lafayette, Louisiana
SURINAMBOAS.COM
kaiyudsai@SURINAMBOAS.COM

The BCC are his little things, The Peruvian litter I had last year are no joke they will light you up if they are hungry which is most of the time. The Guyana litter is hissy, but all bark very little bite.

Thanks,

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Several years ago when the Bob Clark Forum was in existence and there was another constrictor ban brewing some one posted really good stats from either the Dept. of Agriculture or the National Safety Commission=or similar federal agency. The two I remember is every year in the USA 0.3 persons die from a giant snake and you are 200% more likely to be injured by a large family dog than a large snake. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

Last updated in 2005 but very interesting info.
Link

I'm sure that you remember the big stink Bill Nelson and others made about the incident with the girl being killed by the Burm (I still doubt that's what happened.) I can tell you just off the top of my that between Christmas and now there were 2 deaths related to dogs here in Fl. and I think there was a third but I am unsure. The first death involved a 2-3 yr old child that was attacked by a rottweiler in the New Port Richey area and the second involved a weimereiner attacking a child down in south Fl. around West Palm. I am definitely pro dog but dogs are potentially more dangerous than non-venomous snakes hands down and even with native venomous snakes more people are killed by lightning in the state of Fl. alone ( I think the avg. is in the 17-25 range) than the number of people who die annually from venomous snake bite nationwide (pretty consistently around 9-10 a year.). Perhaps our legislators should concern themselves with the rising unemployment rate and our out of control budget deficit than people's or trying to create a nanny state. November is coming.....It's well past time to clean house.