Animals take $70m injury toll on Kiwis
Seen as man’s best friend, canines cause their buddies 20,000 injuries a year
Animal-related injuries cost ACC about $70 million in both 2017 and last year. Dogs, horses, cattle and sheep all left Kiwis with injuries the corporation agreed to fund.
Dogs alone led to more than 20,000 injury claims in each of the past three years, ACC statistics show.
Chatham Islander Rose Page was among those who suffered dog attack injuries. She was bitten by a family pig-hunting dog on November 14 last year when she tried to break up a dog fight. One dog grabbed her arm.
In the same month, three dogs brutally attacked a woman in Opotiki, leaving her battling critical injuries.
The dogs, who belonged to her brother, left cuts on her head, neck, abdomen and legs.
Last July, Oliver Beaumont was badly cut around the face when mauled by two rottweilers in Winton in a five-minute attack. Beaumont, autistic, was approached by the dogs while walking near his family’s home.
There were 7680 horse-related injury claims last year, down from 8272 in 2017, and 3440 cattle-related injury claims, down from 3587.
In August last year, two people were hurt in south Auckland’s Totara Park by a herd of agitated cows.
In October, an elderly man was kicked in the head by a cow and admitted to Whangarei Hospital.
Federated Farmers National president Katie Milne said farmers commonly needed to know how to handle, approach and judge the moods of cattle, sheep and deer: “They have got minds of their own.”
Spatial awareness and planning an exit route when doing work in a yard was important, she said.
“When you get into a certain zone, they are either going to fight or flight.
“Deer are classic, they are getting better and better as they are more and more domesticated but they really can be quite skittery and panicky.”
Farmers who worked with deer tended to know exactly what they were in for, she said.
At certain times of year, such as when cows were calving, people needed to be mindful that animals would be more agitated.
“You have to be careful when you are handling them, not to get between the cow and the calf,” Milne said.
“Keeping dogs and small children away from them when they are calving is generally good . . . because they might have a go at the smallest thing there rather than the biggest thing first.”
Cattle could weigh up to 1000kg and even smaller animals might be 300kg to 400kg.
Milne said animals had a lot more mass than humans. “They have very thick bones and legs if they kick and they also have very thick heads for a head clash if they try and bunt you.
“We do know over the years there have been people who have been killed by cattle.”
Slips and trips when evading a close call could also be common, she said.