Dog bites: what can social media tell us?

Dog bite statistics are generally recorded through emergency hospital admissions, however little evidence is available on the dog bites which are less serious; require minor medical treatment through a GP or selftreatment, and limited figures are available for these. There may be an opportunity to source additional information through social media relating to the nature of dog bites and circumstances that surround them, thus enabling more informed education of the public to reduce the number of dog bites. Furthermore, reaction to dog bites in the media and legislation change is also beneficial. Research using social media has been carried out in some sectors which may be useful to ascertain similar methodologies, such as assessing animal behaviour (Burn; 2011; Nelson & Fijn, 2013); the agri-food sector (Boehm et al.,2010) and public reaction to media reports (e.g. Sanderson and Cheong, 2011). There are currently a range of social media applications (such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram etc.) available which may provide evidence in a pictorial, written or combined format which relate to dog bites. This paper [1] reviews previous research relating to the use of social media for assessing public perceptions, [2] proposes future research using methods of social media, assessing the advantages and disadvantages of each form of social media, [3] to assess incidences of dog bites and note what can be gained from such sources, [4] gauge public reaction to media reports and legislative changes relating to dog attacks.