Pet Insurance... or People Insurance? You decide!

Responding to a New York Times Freakonomics blog post by Professor James E. McWilliams, one commentator addresses a quote from the post:

“... [a fatal dog attack] happens more than you’d think. In 2009, there were 32 fatal dog attacks in the United States.”

Calling forth the sense of a practical statistical mind, our commentator Noah rebuts:

"In 2006 there were 72 million pet dogs in the U.S. ... and 32 killed a human. That’s one fatality per 2.25 million dogs. On average, there are 584 infanticides in the US (according to this source). That’s about 1 per 500,000 people. So parents are at least 4-5 times more likely to kill their children than the family dog. And that’s assuming all 32 fatal dog attacks were against children. We should be giving custody to the pit bulls."

This is the kind of shrewd thinking that tickles my fancy...

While it isn't certain where Noah derived his pet statistics, from a quick search of pet related fatality statistics on Wikipedia we see that, in 2009, there are 30 reported dog-related fatalities. From the Humane Society of the United States we find that there are approximately 77.5 millions dogs in the U.S. in 2009. Therefore, we can conclude that there is a fatality rate of 1 per 2,583,333 dogs... and, citing the same source as our friend Noah, we see that, indeed, in 2005 there were 584 infanticides. In the same year the U.S. population hovered around 296,410,404 people (according to U.S. Census data). We confirm that is is about 1 fatality in approximately 500,000 people.

So, perhaps mandated liability insurance should be considered... not for dog owners per se... but for everybody with children.

Either way, it appears from even cursory statistics, that people are too worried about dog attacks on children; maybe it's the sensationalization of such attacks via U.S. media... who knows.. what is sure, however, is that when we start to consider our problems the way our friend Noah has (i.e. statistically) we obtain a more robust understanding and ...dare I say it... perspective!

Here's another cheer for statistics!

~Anton