Animals killing people

[Supernick]

Which animal (discounting insects and disease carrying animals) is attributed to causing the most human  casualties a year?

[smudge]

That's okay bernardo - let's just be friends & get on with the show!

 

When abroad, I am a sitting target for Mosquitoes. They have a field day with me, but I've no idea why, as I always use repellent spray in the daytime. It must be the residue of Opium perfume I wear in the evenings.

[Cetti]

The Hippo kills more people in Africa than any other animal, but as it's only  found in Africa there must be an animal associated with worldwide statistics.

Snakes  kill 30-40,000 a year worldwide, so that's a possibility.

[smudge]

So my assumption was right then after all! - Well in Africa at least! :D)

[LeedsRhinos]

Going back to mozzies I once read that they were (apart from people killed in war) responsable for the deaths of more than half of the people who have ever lived.

[KEJ2000]

I would guess DOGS, that's right, dogs. I'm sure the actual figure is under-reported.  In the USA about a zillion people are killed each year by their neighbours' pitbulls... and other attack-dog breeds. And the dog is probably the most common household animal in virtually every country in the world. Much more prevalent than hippos! Few animals have more day-to-day contact with humans than dogs do. If you consider a coyote, wolf, or dingo to be a "dog", too, it's even more true. (Do dingos ever kill people? I know nothing about them!) What does everyone else think about this? Am I on to something here?

[KEJ2000]

Oh, and once I was at my aunt's house... I was in the backyard when my aunt's pet Doberman suddenly attacked my little two-year-old cousin *for no reason* and would surely have killed the boy had I not been the only person to witness this and intervene!  It was a nightmare.  This must occur more often than we think.

[Tweed]

I'm so glad that Smudge and Bernardo are friends again.

[Yeah Bee]

Hippo is probably a good answer, but snakes if you put all snakes as one animal. Also dogs i pressume both in attacking people and getting rabies (is that correct a disease you can get from animal bites and you get into a sick rage and fever and so on). But you know one thing there are more people dying in horseriding then in boxing, but maybe that one doesn't count

[Yeah Bee]

To KEJ2000. I guess dingos can kill people but it is rare. In Australia mate their is a big trial, don't know when, were a mother claimed that a dingo took her baby but I think she was under trial for murder herself. There is a movie about it "A scream in thew night" or something