Dog bite statistics?

As a new dog owner, I have had to consider many issues that are new to me. Dog bites is one of those issues. There has been a lot of news recently about so-called Pit Bulls. Some municipalities have banned ownership of the breed, and Toronto is apparently considering it. It's led me to research the subject a little bit.

There do not appear to be any reliable statistics regarding the frequency of dog bites by specific breeds.  In fact, there does not seem to be very much in the way of unbiased information to be found anywhere. Most articles I found were either by lawyers encouraging litigation, or by dog lovers, who would have us believe that dog bites are incredibly rare anomalies. People do seem to agree that the vast majority of dog bites are minor, and go unreported. The lawyers and insurers state that the breeds most likely to bite are pit bull terriers, rottweilers, german shepherds, huskies, alaskan malamutes, doberman pinschers, chows, great danes, st. bernards and akitas. What they are really saying is those are the most widely owned large, strong breeds. They are also breeds that are most commonly owned by people who bought them specifically for their reputations as fighting or guard dogs, and train them to be aggressive. So bite incidents that result in serious injury leading to litigation or insurance payouts most commonly involve those breeds.

Leaving breed out of it, the statistics seem to be thus:

The largest percentage of reported dog bite cases are of dogs biting their own owners. In most cases it is because the owners either engaged in rough play with the dogs, leading to aggression, or because they were cruel to the dogs.

The next largest group of reported bites are of friends or family of the dog owner, occurring on the owner's premises.

Following that, is bites to people unknown to the dog who were trespassing on the owner's premises, or who were leaning over a fence. Usually, they were taunting or tormenting the dog.

The fourth highest percentage of reported dog bites stems from dogs running free and unsupervised. Often these dogs will team up, and pack behaviour ensues.

The number of dog bites that occur when a dog is on a lead, off its own property, is so small as to be statistically insignificant.

What all this leads up to is the fact that dogs should not be licensed, but their owners should be. Dog ownership should be predicated upon a prospective owner taking a course, and passing a test. Owners that are found to be negligent in the care, training, and socialisation of their dog should lose the privilege of dog ownership.

Dogs kill or maim, just like cars do, only in the hands of the negligent, or criminal. Lets take them out of those hands.