dog attack stats

Is probably more common than a dog attacking a human"((aaron)) but dog attacks on people continue to cost insurance companies millions of dollars in illinois.good evening i'm aaron bennett((roscoe))and i'm jennifer roscoe in fact...state farm paid nearly 14 million dollars in dog- related claims in illinois last year.that puts the state pretty high up on the company's top ten list.w-c-i-a three's luke ray is here now.

Luke, how does illinois rank?

((luke))with 323 claims in 2016 illinois came in second behind california.

Some say with the number of dog attacks they hear in the news or in their line of work - that isn't much of a surprise.

When zach zobel looks at his puppy chipper, it's hard not to think of a dog bite.i've personally never been bitten by a dog, but chipper when he was three months old got attacked by a larger dog.

I don't really know much about the situation, but his owner at the time left him at the vet and said they don't have the money to pay for it.

He says chipper doesn't hold any grudges.

Ryan bradley says that's not often the case with people who get bit.there's quite a few calls about this.

As a partner at champaign law firm koester and bradley, he says they tend to get those calls once or twice a month.

Bradley says that could be how illinois law views those incidents.when it comes to liability, in a lot of other states dogs get "one free bite" in essence because that is what's necessary to put the owner on notice that there's actually a problem.

In illinois it's called strict liability, so there is no "one free bite" for a dog in illinois.the attorney says that could be a reason why the state ranks so high on the dog attack claims list.

Bradley says most of these cases are settled with the insurance company long before they make it to court.

He says even though they can be tricky, there's a few questions that always need an answer.in most situations what these come down to is whether or not the person was bit, provoked the animal, and whether or not they were where they should've been.for bradley the claims might be common, but zobel says his dog is proof that not every attack victim will seek an attorney.i think a dog on dog bite is probably more common than a dog attacking a human.

((luke))the attorney we spoke with says if you have a dog you should be prepared.he says it's important to talk to your insurance agent or whoever prepared your homeowner's policy to make sure your pets are covered.thanks luke ((roscoe))state farm says dog attack claims have increased recently.in 2015...the company paid a record-breaking one hundred-eighteen million dollars for more than three thousand claims.there was a fifteen percent increase in 2016.

The new record is one hundred twenty-one million dollars.

((roscoe))time for a