Why Are Children More Susceptible To Dog Bites In North Carolina?
Key Highlights:
- Why are children more susceptible to dog bites in North Carolina? Children are much smaller than adults and often do not have the knowledge about dogs’ warning signs as an adult, thus being less wary of being near a dog than an adult would.Â
- Over the last 16 years, North Carolina has had one of the highest numbers of fatal dog attacks by state in the US, with the majority of the victims being young children aged 10 years or younger.Â
- In North Carolina, when a child is bitten by a dog, the North Carolina “one bite rule” would not apply, and the dog owner may be facing liability dog bites children NC for any injuries associated with the incident.
- Settlement for children dog bites North Carolina by an insurance company will generally range from approximately $10,000 to $30,000 for a minor dog bite with no permanent damage to approximately $100,000 to $250,000+ if there is permanent damage.
- If you have been injured by a dog, call (800) 529-0804 for a free consultation. You will not owe any legal fees unless you receive compensation from your claim against the insurance company for your injuries.
The fact that children are often smaller than adults makes them much more likely to be bitten by a dog because of their behavior, size, and lack of experience. A child could run after, hug, grab, stare at, squeal, or reach toward a dog without recognizing the warning signs.Â
Additionally, children are lower to the ground than adults; their faces and necks are closer to a dog’s mouth than an adult’s. The even scarier part is that many dog bites take place in people’s backyards or front porches, at family gatherings, on the sidewalk, in a park, in their neighborhoods, anywhere the general public thinks a dog was simply ‘fine’ to be around.
Children under the age of 10 have the highest rate of admission to a hospital from dog bites of any age group in the United States. North Carolina is one of the top five states in the country for dog bite fatalities over the last 16 years. The fact that these incidents are not rare is not in question; in fact, they occur as a predictable event every year in North Carolina, impacting thousands of families.
I’m Robert Tatum, an attorney with Tatum & Atkinson Law Firm. Since 2005, our veteran-owned law firm has been providing legal representation and advocacy to North Carolina families with children who were injured from dog bites. Our legal team has over 65 years of combined experience in representing dog bite injuries.
Why Do Children Face A Higher Dog Bite Risk?
Children do not see dogs as adults do. Children see dogs as something to play with rather than something to be afraid of. Fear, stress, territorial behavior, or body language does not cross the child’s mind when seeing a dog, just that the dog is “cute.”Â
That’s the reason why kids get bitten by dogs NC has such a high number of dog bites involving children; the child wants to play, and the dog wants space.
Dogs can exhibit a variety of behaviors when they feel threatened or uncomfortable and may use these behaviors to signal that they are about to bite. Behaviors that a dog may exhibit before biting would be standing stiff, ears pulled back, licking its lips, growling, turning away, yawning, and/or showing its teeth.Â
How Dogs Try To Warn Before They Bite
A young child will likely miss some or all of these behaviors, and the bite will happen almost instantaneously. The CDC has a guideline for families on supervising children around dogs and avoiding dogs that are transitioning in some way, such as when they are eating, sleeping, or caring for puppies.
How Does A Child’s Size Increase The Danger?
How tall a child is matters.
A Child Is Closer to a Dog’s Mouth
Children tend to be much closer to the dog’s mouth than adults are, especially on the head, face, and neck. Due to the difference in heights, a child who is bitten on the face may have much more extensive and visible injuries than an adult bitten on the legs or hands by dogs.
In the majority of pediatric dog bite injuries North Carolina cases, children bitten on their face, from head to toe (the cheek, lips, nose, periorbital, scalp, and neck), will require a variety of medical services to manage the injury: stitches, reconstructive surgery, wound infections, scar care, counseling, and the like.
Why Are Facial Bites So Bad?
Injuries to a child’s face cause scarring that the child will most likely see daily in school photos, in mirrors, and during conversations with friends. The result of having a scar on the face may make the child feel less confident and may disrupt sleep, social interaction, and emotional growth. It is not “as simple as a scar,” as a child experiences that type of injury as if there are thousands of people in the world looking directly at them every day!
Where Do Child Dog Attacks Often Happen?
In North Carolina, children frequently suffer dog bites in locations other than dog parks, such as living rooms, backyards, porches, sidewalks, friends’ homes, and parks. The most frequent culprits are dogs that reside in or around the children they attack. Because both children and adults feel comfortable around dogs they know, adult guardians often let down their guard.Â
A child dog attacks North Carolina, and a child’s previous lack of aggression in North Carolina is no guarantee that the dog won’t bite; a single bite can endanger a child for the rest of their life. Incidents of child dog bites occur when a child plays too aggressively with a dog, approaches the dog’s food while it eats, excessively hugs the dog, startles a sleeping dog, reaches through a fence, runs close to an overzealous dog, or intervenes while two dogs are fighting.
What Injuries Do Children Suffer From Dog Bites?
Children are at risk of a wide variety of dog bite injuries, which may include the following:Â
- Puncture Wounds
- Torn Skin
- Infections
- Broken Bones
- Nerve Damage
- Tendon Injuries
- Eye Injuries
- Facial Cuts (Wounds)
- Scalp Wound, andÂ
- Permanent Scarring.Â
In severe dog bites in children North Carolina, a child suffering from such injuries can require the following emergency medical services (EMS):Â
- Emergency Medical Care (Emergency Room)
- Stitches
- Wound Cleaning
- Antibiotics
- Rabies Risk Evaluation
- Tetanus Needs
- Imaging
- Surgery and/orÂ
- Specialist Needs
Injury Type |
Why It Matters |
| Facial wounds | May cause visible scarring or require plastic surgery |
| Hand injuries | Can affect grip, movement, nerves, and tendons |
| Deep punctures | May increase infection risk |
| Eye-area injuries | Can threaten vision and require specialist care |
| Scalp or neck wounds | May involve heavy bleeding or deeper trauma |
| Emotional trauma | Can cause fear, nightmares, anxiety, or avoidance |
As described by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, animal bites can injure the skin, the bones, the muscles/tendons/ligaments/nerves/and blood vessels. Thus, the very least visible separation of the wound would be considered to be “real” and receive appropriate treatment by a medical professional.
What Should Parents Do After A Child Dog Bite?
First, the child must be put in a safe place before washing small cuts with soap and water. Treating bites from a dog is completely different from treating cuts made from things in the kitchen, so use caution. Get medical attention for any deep bite, facial bite, heavy bleeding, numbness, severe pain, or signs of infection in their area immediately.
Child emergency dog bite treatment NC can be done via urgent care, the hospital’s emergency room, a pediatric doctor’s office, prescribed antibiotics, sutures if needed, X-rays if needed, rabies determination/vaccine, or sent to a surgeon for evaluation.
When treating an animal bite in children, parents should keep track of the following:Â
- dog name
- owner name
- whether the dog is vaccinated
- where the dog lives
- whether or not witnesses were present
- if animal control will be contacted
- and if law enforcement will be contacted.
What Records Should Parents Keep?
You should keep photographs of the wound at different times, including photos of the healing process, and medical records that include treatment plans, prescriptions, and discharge documents.Â
Also, remember to retain records of absences from school, therapies received from a therapist, and any correspondence between yourself and your child’s dog owner and/or your child’s insurance company. These documents are essential to proving your child’s injury from animal bite cases North Carolina children, as they will provide evidence to demonstrate the nature of the injury sustained by your child, the medical care received by your child, and the healing process, as well as any future deleterious effects resulting from the injury.
How Can Dog Bites Affect Children Emotionally?
Children often remember a dog attack for a long time. A child’s physical wounds may heal; however, the child may always be afraid of dogs. Many children will experience nightmares, avoid dogs, panic when they hear barking, and feel embarrassed or nervous about having scars or being around their friends’ dogs.
Dog attack risks for kids NC are very common due to children not having a sufficient vocabulary to describe and explain their feelings. Parents may identify that their child has become clingy, angry, has difficulty sleeping, cries uncontrollably, and/or refuses to go to places where they might come in contact with dogs after being attacked by a dog.
When representing children in dog bite cases, we must evaluate the entire injury to the child, which includes the scar, the psychological fear, the extent of medical treatment, and the effect the dog attack will have on their daily life.
How Can Families Reduce Dog Bite Risks?
Being supervised and obeying a few simple rules is key to preventing dog bites. Children cannot be expected to simply know how to behave around dogs without being taught what is acceptable and what is not.
Useful dog bite prevention children NC steps
There are some key steps to helping prevent your child from being bitten by a dog.
Children should not:
- Hug an unknown dog
- Pull a dog’s tail
- Grab a dog’s ears
- Disturb a dog that is sleeping
- Touch a dog’s food bowl
- Run up to a dog
- Reach through a fence to touch a dog
Before your child tries to touch a dog, they should:
- Ask the owner if they can pet the dog
- Allow the dog to sniff them first
- Remain calm when approaching a dog
- Avoid making eye contact with a dog
- Walk away slowly if the dog appears to be afraid or tense
When you are around your dog in busy times, at cookouts, birthday parties, holidays, or neighborhood playdates, keep a close watch over your dog.
When Can A Child Dog Bite Lead To Legal Action?
You could potentially file a claim against someone else (i.e., a dog owner, landowner, business owner, etc.) who did not take proper steps to care for a dog that attacked you and/or caused you injury; these claims are based on the facts of your situation.
Dog laws in North Carolina can fall under the Dangerous Dog Statutes for violence. According to Chapter 67 of the NC General Statutes, Article 1A, if your dog has killed (or attacked, causing extreme injury) a person or other animal (without provocation) or any number of scenarios defined in the statute, it can be considered dangerous, and it explains the owner’s liability (or lack thereof).
Does North Carolina’s “One-Bite Rule” Protect Negligent Owners?
Not necessarily. Courts in North Carolina evaluate the behavior of a dog and the degree of an owner’s responsibility based on the current situation as opposed to any previous history of the dog. If the owner has violated a leash law or has had previous knowledge of a dog’s aggressiveness, the “one-bite rule” may not make an owner immune from liability due to another person who has suffered from a dog bite event.
The liability dog bites children NC includes conditions such as a dog having a prior bite history, violation of leash laws, failure to recognize warning signs of a dog being a danger to people, failure to restrain your dog, or failure to supervise your child’s activities.
What Is A Child Dog Bite Case Typically Worth In North Carolina?
Overall, most cases settle within established settlement structures; however, there can be considerable variation in settlement amount relative to the facts of each case at hand. With regard to settlements involving minor personal injury causes of action (e.g., bruises/superficial lacerations), the approximate settlement amount ranges from $10,000 to $30,000.
Similarly, the approximate settlement amount for injuries considered more serious but still requiring only stitches and/or short-term rehabilitation considerations would typically range from $30,000 to $70,000.
More serious injuries (i.e., nerve damage, permanent scarring, requiring surgery or major rehabilitation) ordinarily settle for amounts in excess of $100,000 – $250,000. For a child who suffered from any facial injury, the amount of the settlement is likely to exceed $100,000 due to the lifetime impact on the child’s appearance and emotional health.
Why Evidence Matters After A Child Dog Bite
Child narratives are protected by evidence. Evidence also demonstrates that the dog was a known threat, that reasonable adults acted appropriately, and that the child was impacted by the injury.
- Photographs, medical records, animal control reports, witness statements, dog owner information, vaccination records, history of prior complaints against the dog, and insurance letters are examples of useful evidence.
- School records, counseling notes, records of treatments for scars, the parent’s missed work due to the child’s injury, and recommendations for future medical care will also provide evidence that shows the full extent of the impact of dog bite injuries in children NC, rather than just the emergency room bill.
Talk To Tatum & Atkinson Law Firm About Child Dog Bite Injuries In North Carolina
So, why are children more susceptible to dog bites in North Carolina? There’s no explanation, but the fact remains the same the kid is smaller, has less exposure, and is less skilled at reading a dog’s body language than an adult would be. Most dog bites to children are from ‘known’ dogs, which makes them particularly distressing for parents and children alike.
If your child has been bitten by a dog, be sure to do four things: Get the child to safety, get medical assistance, document all facts about what happened, and get clear answers. This type of injury should be treated with the utmost care from the beginning.
Call (800) 529-0804 for further information and get a free consultation at the start.
FAQs: Why Are Children More Susceptible To Dog Bites In North Carolina??
Are certain dog breeds more likely to bite children in North Carolina?Â
Dogs can bite regardless of their breed; dog behaviour will determine whether your dog has the potential to bite. Factors such as the dog’s personality, the behaviour and training of the owner, and the situation when the dog bites will help to determine if a dog will exhibit biting behavior.
Should children always avoid approaching unfamiliar dogs?Â
Yes, children should first get permission from an adult and the dog’s owner and only pet the dog after receiving proper permission from all involved, calmly.
What should parents do immediately after a dog bites a child?Â
If a child is bitten by a dog, the following tasks should be performed: Move the child to a safe place, get medical assistance, identify the dog and owner, take photographs, gather witnesses, and report the incident.
Can dog bites in children lead to long-term scarring?Â
Yes. Bites to the face, deep wounds, infected bites, or bites requiring surgical repair can cause permanent scars and may be subject to future treatment.
Who may be responsible for a dog bite involving a child in North Carolina?Â
Depending on the circumstances of the incident, the dog owner, the property owner, the person responsible for caring for the dog, the business, or anyone else who was negligent could be responsible.
