Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've always wanted to collect what statistics conserning anything venomous I possibly could to use for educating others at presentations or displays. I was wondering what kind of statistics anyone here knows they could share hopefully United States based. I know many aren't with solid data or evidence but if it's even something that could be used that can't be argued with would be better than nothing. Examples of what I'm looking for are and I welcome any corrections.

Over 65% of all first bites being dry bites while over 90% of all second bites being envenomations.

Over 85% of all venomous bites being on the hands and lower arms.

Over 95% of all venomous bites being to men

Less than 5% being a true accident and the animal not being provoked.

In the U.S. over 10,000 people bitten by venomous snakes and average less than 15 deaths a year.

Also number of deaths due to other animals every year could be helpful (?deaths a year due to dogs, lifestock, deer, insects).

I've also alaways looked for the number of deaths thought to be directly related to rodent spread diseases.

Thank you very much for any input anyone can give me.

I haven't worked out exact numbers, but after mentioning how many people in the U.S. are killed by snakes, I like to point out to visitors that they were far more likely to be killed on the highway, driving to the refuge than to ever be killed by any snake.

This seems fairly obvious to most people when they think about it...

Good numbers are hard to come by, but it's generally accepted that somewhere between 100 and 400 people a year are killed by lightning in the U.S. That helps put things in perspective.

Oh, and according to the CDC, in 2007 (latest year with complete data), 940 people choked to death on food and 365 people drowned in their bathtubs...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Thanks for the response Larry. I tell people something similar. I tell them that even if they were bitten by a venomous snake where we live they'd be more likely to get in a car accident on the way to the hospital for treatment than to actually die from the snake bite.

http://www.anapsid.org/pdv-boid.html

I always use the horse reference when writing to legislators concerning keeping of venomous, especially since many legislators are horse people. Horses kill and injure more people a year in the U.S than do all venomous snakes both wild and captive. Yet who would ban horses? They are all American! People buy them for little girls!

Personally, I love horses. I was raised on a ranch where we saw an average of four rattlesnakes a day just in the course of work, atrox, scutes, cerastes and sometimes tigris or molossus in the rocky areas. And I have been keeping rattlesnakes for forty years with no mishaps, yet I have been thrown, stepped on, kicked, bitten and smashed agains fenceposts, barn walls etc. by horses. My best friend was kicked in the head and killed by a horse while trimming its hoof.

I have never personally known anybody who died of snakebite. I do have a couple of friends with some damaged/missing fingers from bites and one with a fasciotomy scar, but that's it. I know MANY people who are permanently mangled/crippled from horse related accidents. Just go to any feed store or rodeo and you will see crippled cowboys limping around.Yet America views horse realted accidenta as "part of the territory" and doesn't give it a second thought. But a snakebite is big news. I always make it clear that I am not rying to ban horses, just trying to put some real perspective on things.

Rich

You make a fantastic argument about the horses. I have also heard the numbers before about livestock related deaths every year. I can't remember them but I am sure horse deaths statistics are probably high enough that it'd be safe to say more deaths are attributed to horses each year than to snake bites in the US for the past twenty years combined. According to this website

http://www.rexano.org/Statistics/venomous_captive_snake_fatality.pdf
between the years of 1999 and 2005 Only 44 total fatalities from snake bites and this website here

http://journals.lww.com/smajournalonline/Fulltext/2004/07000/Reptile_Envenomation_20_year_Mortality_as_Reported.6.aspx

Claim that between 1979 and 1998 pretty much all results they post aproximately 100 deaths by snake bites within that time span. Unless someone can post accurate data on proposed estimated horse related deaths each year. I am not afraid to guess they average higher than that.

Dry bites vary quite a bit by species, but 65% sounds awfully high. A quick skim of scholarly reviews on aggregated snakebite cases in South America and southern Asia typically listed dry bite rates in the teens, with one article suggesting rates from 30-42% were extraordinarily high. However, one would expect some subset of reported dry bites to be harmless bites from misidentified non-venomous, which would suggest the true dry bite rate is slightly underreported.

Although the danger of a nervous horse in a confined space should not be underestimated, I would think most fatal horse accidents happen while riding, in many cases when the horse has lost control of itself and is also subject to injury or risk. Just not seeing this comparison.

As I said above, I personally just use it in reference to the KEEPING of venomous snakes as far as legislation goes, yet it still works overall because the number of horse related deaths still greatly outnumbers the total number of deaths from venomous snakes both wild and captive. The actual reason for the horse related death is irrelevent. But for the record, in the accidents I have witnessed or had in my lifetime, nervous horses didn't have any higher average than just plain accidents (horses can't always see where you are when you are close to them, even in wide open areas which is why you keep your hand on them as you walk around), or just plain rider error/clumsiness. And with nervous horses one is already prepared for a problem. I think I have seen angry horses cause the most injuries (bites, kicks, bucking,rearing, even flipping over on their backs and trying to smash the rider). Like people, they just have individual temperments and personalaties and their bad days, and some go overboard on taking it out on the rider/caretaker. Often with angy horses you don't see it coming. Again, I am not saying this stuff happens all that frequently, but it is a reality and a good comparison to give those who wish to villify snakes and their keepers. And of course, horses pale to dogs, power tools, quds and motor cycles,autos etc.

The last data I remember seeing from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that there was somewhere between 100 and 125 horse related deaths in the U.S. annually. Also, there were on average 50 deaths per year by insects, about 20 deaths per year by dogs and around 5 per year each for spiders and venomous snakes.

Kelly

If you want to use a scary NON-animal statistic....

About 5,000 motorcyclists die annually.

For every 45 registered Super Sport bikes (aka crotch rockets), there is about 1 death EACH year.

Here is a fun link I like to use: http://www.balloonhq.com/BalloonCouncil/facts.html

Deaths from balloons are on the same order of magnitude as venomous reptiles.

it appears that on an average annual basis, over the last twenty years, balloons have been responsible for more than twice as many deaths as venomous snakes.

Kelly

OK I've gathered some data and it's actually surprisingly less than I even though or have always heard. (Note that in my following figures I used an average of 6.29 deaths a year from a recent five year study rather than the 5.42 average over the past 25 years. I used recent study statistic numbers to give any benefit of doubt and arguments concerning population increase. Even though we could also counter argue with advanced medical procedure.)

Total number of deaths due to snake bites in the USA between 1999 - 2005 (44, average 6.29 per year) wild (38, averaging 5.43 per year being 86.36%) captive (6, averaging .86 per year being 13.64%)

According to estimated USA population 2010, if 6.29 deaths acured that year it averages 1 in 49,332,273 chances of dying from snake bite that year.

The probability of winning Powerball lottery is 1 chance in 146,107,962.…. 2.96 times less than the chances of dying from a snake bite. That means if you buy three lottery tickets and play different numbers on each you have a better chance of winning the powerball lottery than dying from a snake bite.

Surprisingly as well I always heard on average numbers ranging between 8 - 15 people die in the USA every year from snake bite but from what I've gathered there has never been a total of more than 12 in any given year and Total deaths nationally between 1979 - 2005 141 deaths occurred averaging 5.42 per year.

Aproximately 8,000 bites from venomous snakes occurring in the USA each year if 6.29 deaths occurring from that is only 1 in 1,272 chances of dying from a venomous bite after being bitten. That being less than .1%

Between 2001 - 2004 only 3,188 venomous bites per year avg. were treated in USA ER’s

According to a medical journal website Average 219 people die from horse injuries every year

According to http://danger.mongabay.com/injury_death.htm of the almost 50,000 people dying every year in trasportation related accidents every year 1 in every 77 people will die in transportation related accidents within their lifetime. Meaning you'd have a better chance of dying in a car accident on your way to a hospital to be treated for a venomous snake bite than to die from the snake bite itself.

Your stats are almost identical for the State of Mississippi. 200 bites per year. Approximately 15 involve stepping on, sitting on, or otherwise accidently touching the snake. The other 185 got nailed by trying to kill or torment the snake ("Make him rattle, Bubba. Poke him again.".

How about alcohol? Stats range from 41% to over 60% of snakebite victims have been drinking at the time of the bite.

And we can't leave out tattos!

My favorite quote is from George Carlin: "My three greatest disapointments in life. My government. My religion. My species." (I've added, "My gender"

Cheers,

Terry Vandeventer

That comes to 92.5%.... What's disturbing if these facts are true is that'd be from people admitting to tormenting the animal. The true numbers could only be higher. People won't ever be accidently bitten then credit it to them tormenting the animal. People would have more motive to say it was an accident when they were actually tormenting it.