10 States With Most Dog Bites

Is your state on the list?

It’s every owner’s worst nightmare that their dog might actually bite someone. You might recall that it’s not always the big, aggressive dogs that you think which bite people the most. Often, it’s the smaller, tiny dogs that bite.

Either way, dog bites can equal insurance claims. Most dog bite cases end up in civil courts with people suing the owners. Many times, owners will tell people not to pet their dog and they will still do it. I’m not sure I can say that you deserve claim money in those cases.

Insurance companies process a lot of dog bite claims in any given year. State Farm did an analysis and tracked which states receive the most dog bites claim.

Here are the top 10 states for dog bite claims in 2011:

State                          Number of claims          Claims paid (estimated)

1.    California                   527                         $20.3 million

2.    Illinois                       309                         $10.0 million

3.    Texas                        219                          $5.1 million

4.    Ohio                          215                          $5.4 million

5.    Pennsylvania             197                           $4.9 million

6.    Michigan                   181                           $7.0 million

7.    Florida                      157                            $5.1 million

8.    Indiana                      139                            $3.5 million

9.    New York                   133                            $6.1 million

10. Minnesota                   117                            $3.5 million

Image: Flickr

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