Australia might get a bad rap for its venomous snakes and spiders, but new data shows the animals living in our own homes are much more likely to harm us.
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Figures released this week from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) show injuries from animals are on the rise across the country.
Australians were 6.6 times as likely due to injury from non venomous animals compared to venomous ones, and more than half of the 23,379 injury hospitalisations in 2021-22 were due to domestic dogs and cats.
Overall injury hospitalisations from animals were up from about 4,350 ten years ago, with injuries most often occurring at home and during leisure activities.
Wounds to the hand, wrist, neck and head were the most common result of an attack.
Recently, 83-year-old Bellambi man Bill Blanch was one of these victims, when he was attacked by two bullmastiffs which escaped from a yard and knocked him down before seriously injuring his hands and arms.
"I was nearing the end of my walk coming up Bellambi Lane, when these two dogs inside the property walked along the fence beside me snarling and growling," Mr Blanch said.
"They crawled over it ... till they got over the top of it and then they attacked me."
Likewise, in October last year a two-year-old child was left with facial injuries after an alleged dog attack on Cliff Road in North Wollongong.
Police said a German shepherd lunged at the girl, who ended up in Wollongong Hospital to be treated for facial injuries.
In the Illawarra, local government figures show there were 208 dog attacks reported by councils last year, with 47 people across the region injured badly enough to be hospitalised or need medical treatment.
The bulk of these attacks happened in Wollongong LGA, where there are nearly 76,000 dogs registered and there were 171 attacks reported by the council and 41 people with serious injuries.
These numbers were up 20 per cent from 2022, when there were 170 dog attacks reported by all three Illawarra councils, and 28 people were seriously injured.
However, overall attacks and the number of people and animals injured have dropped compared to totals in 2019-2021.
Meanwhile, there's been a huge rise in the number of dogs living locally - with 21,000 more pet dogs registered with Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama councils than five years ago.
AIHW spokesperson Dr Sarah Ahmed said it was not surprising that domestic animals accounted forthe most injuries.
"Although owning a pet comes with a risk of injury, research has shown that interactions between humans and animals can provide benefits to our health and wellbeing,' she said.
"Over 2 in 3 Australian households are estimated to own a pet, so unsurprisingly common domestic pets account for the largest proportion of animals involved in injury hospitalisations."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
