Climate change is making your dog aggressive: Report

A recent study has shed light on a troubling connection between climate change and dog behaviour. Dog bites can be up to 11% more common on the hottest, sunniest days and when air pollution levels are highest, according to an article published June 15 in Scientific Reports.

Dog bites linked to environment

Previous studies have documented that warmer weather and higher levels of air pollution may be associated with increased aggression in humans, rhesus monkeys, rats, and mice. However, until now it was not clear if this behavior of dogs against humans also follows this trend.

Clas Linnman, of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, and his team examined data on dog bites in eight US cities (Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Chicago, Louisville, Los Angeles, and New York) between 2009. and 2019. The data was extracted from public access repositories registered by the animal control authorities.

The investigation included 69,525 reported bites, an average of three per day for ten years. The authors examined their relationship with daily levels of fine particles, ozone, and temperatures. They evaluated ultraviolet (UV) radiation and precipitation.

Using these data, they were able to determine that the incidence of dog bites increased by 11% on days with higher UV index, 4% with higher temperatures, and 3% on days with higher ozone levels. On the contrary, it decreased slightly, by 1%, on the days with the most rain.

“While human-dog interactions are likely to increase on days with higher temperatures and higher UV radiation, i.e., sunny days, our analysis indicates that ozone levels further contribute to the risk of dog bites. An effect present both in the winter and summer months”, details the study.

Temperature, pollution linked to dog aggression

The dog bite records did not include information on other factors that may influence this risk, such as breed, sex, or whether the dog had been spayed or neutered. Also, no information was available about previous interactions between the dog and the victim, such as whether the individual was familiar with the dog.

However, previous studies have shown that most dog bites arise from a dog known to the victim, and that they are also related to interaction or attempted interaction with the dog.

The study also found that there is a slight decrease in risk on weekends and holidays, "suggesting that sufficient time for dog-human interactions does not increase risk," say the researchers.

The scientists conclude that these results appear to extend the association between higher temperatures and air pollution levels with interspecies aggression to include dogs. However, more research is needed to further study this relationship.

Dog bites in India

According to the latest data submitted to the Lok Sabha, Maharashtra reported the highest number of dog bite cases in 2022, with 346,318 cases. Tamil Nadu came in second with 3,30,264 reported cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 1,69,378 cases. Uttarakhand recorded 1,62,422 cases of dog bites while Karnataka reported 1,46,094 cases. Gujarat and Bihar also experienced a significant number of cases, with 144,855 and 118,354 cases reported, respectively.

A significant number of animal bite cases have been reported by the SMHS Hospital, Srinagar Anti-rabies Clinic, with almost 6,800 cases recorded between April 2022 and March 2023. Of these, approximately 5,700 cases were dog bites, indicating a trend worrisome in the region. Residents have expressed increasing fear and vulnerability, particularly for older people and children who face difficulty walking on their own during the early or late hours.

Data from the Department of Community Medicine, shared with Ground Report, reveals that Srinagar district reported the highest number of animal bite cases, with a total of 4,912 during the specified period. The month of March 2023 registered the maximum number of cases, reaching 621, while July 2022 reported the lowest with 346 cases. By comparison, Anantnag district recorded the lowest number of animal bite cases in Kashmir, with just 85 cases.

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