130296 20240130142253.0 doi 10.1016/j.jveb.2007.07.010 sideral 66156 ART-2007-66156 eng Rosado, B. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0003-1728-900X Spanish Dangerous Animals Act: Effect on the Epidemiology of Dog Bites 2007 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted The effectiveness and suitability of legislation regarding the issue of dangerous dogs, especially those targeting so-called ‘‘dangerous breeds’’ (DB), have been the object of a lot of criticism. However, the shortage of scientific studies in this field makes an objective assessment of the impact of current legislation difficult. In the present study, dog bite-related incidents from Arago´n (Spain) were analyzed for a 10-year periods (1995 to 2004). With the aim of assessing the impact of the Spanish Dangerous Animals Act on the epidemiology of dog bites, data from the non-legislated (1995 to 1999) and the legislated period (2000 to 2004) were compared in 2 different areas (low- and high-pop ulated areas). According to the results, the population density did exert a significant effect on the in- cidence of dog bites, whereas the legislation in force did not. Popular breeds such as the German shepherd and crossbreed dogs accounted for the great majority of the incidents during the 2 periods of study. Specifically, the German shepherd proved to be over-represented significantly among the canine population. Dogs in the dangerous breeds list, on the other hand, were involved in a small pro- portion of the incidents both before and after the introduction of legislation. The present results suggest that the implementation of the Spanish legislation exerted little impact on the epidemiology of dog bites. Besides the scarce effectiveness, the results suggest that the criteria to regulate only so-called DB were unsuitable and unjustified. It is hoped that this study will be helpful in the elaboration of future regulation measures in this matter. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by-nc-nd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion García-Belenguer,S. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0001-5084-6555 León,M. Palacio,J. Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-1581-3085 1009 617 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Patología Animal Área Medicina y Cirugía Animal 2, 5 (2007), 166-174 Journal of Veterinary Behavior-Clinical Applications and Research Journal of Veterinary Behavior 1558-7878 251950 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/130296/files/texto_completo.pdf Postprint 1023663 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/130296/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Postprint oai:zaguan.unizar.es:130296 articulos driver 2024-01-30-14:18:11 ARTICLE