A 4-year-old boy and a 34-year-old woman are hospitalized in the Valley after being attacked by dogs.
State health officials say that kind of injury is far from unusual in Arizona. The statistics say severe dog bite incidents requiring hospitalization have more than doubled over the last five years.
Health Director Will Humble said there were more than 34,000 emergency room visits involving dog bites in that time. He said the number of patients requiring at least one night in the hospital because of a dog bite was up nearly 140 percent, in the five year period.
Humble said he looked into the stats after last month’s mauling of the 4-year-old and this week’s attack at Phoenix a rental home by seven dogs. The woman injured in that attack is in critical condition.