5 keys to bite prevention

Dogs are renowned as faithful companions and their company is sometimes even good for our health. But despite the close bond between humans and our canine friends, millions of people suffer from dog bites every year.

Dogs can’t talk but they do communicate and they usually tell us when they are not happy. Learning to recognize the signs dogs give us can avert a dog bite, avoid potential exposure to rabies, and save lives.

World Animal Protection, together with the World Health Organization and GARC, recently developed the 5 Keys to Bite Prevention, a set of web resources in Spanish and Portuguese that are designed to educate anyone, but particularly children, on how to protect themselves from dog bites. These tools will be of great interest to school teachers and health educators.

The resources provided in the 5 Keys are primarily designed for children, and consist of a diverse range of materials that can be printed out directly from the website, including a poster, a banner, illustrations, an educational cartoon video, and a teacher's manual.  These individual materials are separate aspects of one message and should be used all together rather than independently. A general user's guide is provided with the online materials to help educators make the most of the 5 Keys materials and should be consulted first.  

The 5 keys are available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Contributed by Melania Gamboa of World Animal Protection, Costa Rica