The tooth hurts: SI leads in dog bites

It may be a dog-eat-dog world, but on Staten Island it’s the humans who are feeling the bites.

New city data show that the island accounted for more canine bites per capita than any other borough.

Dogs chomped down on roughly 62 of every 100,000 residents on the island in 2014, the most recent available data, according to a Health Department report released Friday.

Staten Islanders were rushed to emergency rooms after dog bites at more than twice the rate in Manhattan.

Dogs aren’t more bloodthirsty in the city’s least-populated borough — there are just more of them, according to officials.

“Staten Island had the highest estimated percentage of the population owning one or more dogs — 32 percent,” said Julien Martinez, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

“This could be because of density and the type of housing on Staten Island,” he said, adding that more Staten Islanders have yard space for pets.

Overall, the city saw a total of 6,373 emergency-room visits for dog bites in 2014, up 12 percent from 2007, according to the study.

Of those, 293 required hospitalization.

Victims of the sharp-toothed mutts also suffered bites to their wallets, with the average cost of a dog-bite ER visit in 2014 hitting $2,739, up from $1,503 in 2007.

“These injuries are largely preventable and have significant public-health impacts related to physical trauma, infections and psychological effects, as well as large monetary cost,” the report notes.

New Yorkers reported a total of 3,088 dog bites to the 311 line last year, down from 3,188 in 2014, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

There are more recorded emergency-room trips than dog bites “because not everybody who goes to an emergency room reports that dog bite to the city,” Martinez explained.

The study also says that children are more likely to need emergency-room treatment due to Fido’s mean streak. In 2014, the reported dog-bite rate was 1.5 times higher among children under the age of 17 than among adults.

Roughly 34 percent of the injuries happened in summer months, with June being the peak dog-bite month.