The St. Louis City Health Department's data doesn't separate attacks by species but it show animal attacks as a whole are flat through the first five months of the year, with 240 in 2026, 230 in 2025 and 250 in 2024. However, that number may not paint a complete pictures, with inconsistent reporting from victims skewing the statistics.
St. Louis City Animal Regulation Supervisor Kristin Zellin says most of the reports of animal bites don't come from directly the victims.
"A lot of these bites come in not reported by citizens but by hospitals or urgent cares that are mandatory reporters for any animal bite."
This also skews their numbers for where the dog bites were reported.
"Ward five, which is our highest reported ward also has a lot more urgent cares," says Zellin, who adds most of those reports come from the urgent cares.
Dog attacks killed an elderly woman in January of 2025 and an elderly man in 2022.
Zellin says in her experience, people are hesitant to report to animal control.
"A lot of people when reporting to animal control are fearful of retaliation or things coming back," says Zellin, "but all reports do remain anonymous."
So what happens after a report is made? Zellin says they first contact the victim and obtain as much information as they can. After that it depends on if the animal is owned or stray. Animal control will begin knocking on doors if the animal is owned and their address is known.
"We can do searches, look for more information in the area, look up historically 'have we had problems at this address, with these people.'"
Zellin says if the animal isn't a stray, the search tends to be successful. She says bites from owned animals are more common than from strays
When they find the animal, Zellin says they are quarantined for ten days to confirm this isn't a case of rabies, regardless of that animal's vaccination status. The evaluation after that gets complicated.
"It depends on what happened before... if this is a one-time situation, if it is something where we were protecting rather than threatening... things are a little more nuanced, dogs are dogs, they're are animals."
Zellin says breed is not a factor in this process.
If this is determined to be a serious attack, the dog can be designated as dangerous. This requires the owner to take extra precautions. They include an escape proof enclosure, warning signs posted around the property and muzzling the dog inside the home while outside that enclosure.
The owner must also keep the dog on a six foot leash and muzzle at all times and they must also obtain a $50,000 liability insurance policy and register the dog with the City.
Zellin says the incident involving Steve Ewing's dog has drawn a lot of attention, and more cases of animal attacks need this kind of help.
"Giving people your phone number if you witness an incident. Calling 311 as soon as you feel safe, or if you feel like its an emergency, call 911."
Earlier this month a the dog of the owner of Steve's Hot Dog's was killed by two dogs that had gotten loose.
Earlier this month a the dog of the owner of Steve's Hot Dog's was killed by two dogs that had gotten loose.
