Self Defense: Dog Bites Cost Big Bucks - Tools To Prevent One

There was an article in a recent issue of U.S. News & World Report by the Associated Press about how an insurance company is going to pay more than $109 million on 3,800 dog bite claims for last year nationwide. It is one of the largest insurance providers in the country. That is up from 3500 claims and $90 million in payouts in 2010. The article went on to say that 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs every year and over half of the victims are children. Close to 800,000 of those get medical attention. Seniors are the next biggest group of people attacked followed by letter carriers with the USPS. Those carriers, by the way, are all issued pepper sprays for dog attack defense when they start their jobs.

California leads the country with the most claims and New Mexico and South Dakota are at the bottom of the list with the least claims.

It should be noted that every third week in May is National Dog Bite prevention week.

Since children are the main victims of dog attacks the ASPCA offered some advice: never stare into a dog's eyes; never tease a dog; never approach a chained dog or touch an off leash dog. Children should never play with a dog while eating. Always ask a dog's owner for permission to pet it and let a dog sniff your hand before you touch it.

That advice is good for adults too!

So many of these dog attacks and dog bites occur when adults are out exercising, while they are walking, jogging or bicycling. They usually do this in relatively remote areas where there is not a lot of people congestion, and often they do it in the early morning, late afternoon or early evening hours for the same reason. This makes adults particularly vulnerable to assaults from humans too: they are always susceptible to dog attacks.

There are several self-defense tools that are available as a first line of defense against dog attacks. The most well-known is the dog chaser. This device sends out an ultrasonic sound that only dogs can hear. It is very unpleasant for them and is meant to scare them away. The second popular item is a dog pepper spray by Mace brand.

One of the most effective self-defense tools to defend against dog attacks and dog bites is the Mace Pepper Gun. It shoots out up to 25 feet away and has enough spray for seven shots.

Then there is a new pepper spray especially for runners and walkers with an adjustable hand strap to access the spray rapidly. This can be used in dog and human attacks too.

Those are some tools to use for self-defense against dog attacks to help prevent a dog bite.

Check out our selection of premium pepper sprays for walkers and runners by Sabre. All of our Self Defense Products can protect you but one of them will be just what you are looking for.

Since 2005 Guardian Self-Defense & Security Products LLC has provided personal security to over 45,000 consumers. We offer a full-line of premium self-defense weapons such as pepper spray, stun guns, tasers, pepper mace, personal alarms and other self-defense items