Denver among Colorado counties with highest dog-related injury hospitalization rate.

The County of Denver, despite a long standing “pit bull” dog ban enacted in 1989, has a significantly higher rate of dog bite hospitalizations than all other counties in the state except for one, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statistics.

The Colorado Trauma Registry Database classified Denver County with a rating of "H[1]," that is, with an "injury rate higher than the rest of the state" over a sixteen-year period (1995-2010).

Denver is one of only two counties in the state designated "H."

Three other counties (El Paso, Boulder, and Larimer) were designated "L," with significantly lower rates of dog bite-related hospitalizations, during these same years.

Boulder County, with a population of 295, 000[2], only had 56 dog bite-related hospitalizations during the period 1995 to 2010. Boulder County's animal control ordinances are breed-neutral.

Denver County, with a population of 600,000[3], approximately twice that of Boulder County, had more than six times as many dog bite-related hospitalizations as Boulder County during the same sixteen years. The breed ban had been in effect for six years prior to the first year reported, 1995.

From: 1995 – 2010

Denver: 600,000 people - 344 dog bite hospitalizations (breed ban enacted in 1989)
Boulder: 295,000  people - 56 dog bite hospitalizations (no breed-specific legislation)

Denver's “pit bull” dog ban has not reduced dog bites of any kind.

Prior to Denver's 1989 “pit bull” dog ban, the city was already enjoying a dramatic decrease in the number of dog bites reported annually: from 3,361 in 1971 to 941 in 1988.

Reports from cities and counties across the country, demonstrate that this trend is unrelated to breed bans or breed specific regulation. Cities or counties that have enacted breed bans or restrictions have not had greater reductions in the number of reported bites and/or number of persons hospitalized with dog-related injuries, as compared to cities or counties without breed bans or restrictions.