Table 1: Reported bites to Colusa County for 2003 and 2004.

For the 2 year period, dog bites make up the 69.1% (n=103) of reported bites to the county.  Cat bites for the reporting period made up 14.7% (n=22) of the bites, with bats third at 10.7% (n=16).    The balance of the bites (5.5%) were from rodents, skunks, gophers, and snakes. 

Geographic Location of Bites

Colusa County has an estimated population of 19,678 (2003 estimate, US Census).  The 2 largest towns are Colusa with 28.8% (n=5662) of the county population and Williams with 19.9% (n=3925).  Table 2 lists the towns where bites were reported for the 2-year period and figure 1 shows the frequency of bites per town.

The city of Colusa which has about 1/3 of the county population, had 38.8% of the bite reports in 2003.  This number increased in 2004 to 52.2% of the bite reports.  For Williams, with 20% of the county population, 2003 had 26.3% of the bites, which decreased by half to 13.0% in 2004.  In 2003 the animal control officer spent a great deal of patrol time in Williams, with an effort to enforce the leash laws in the town.  The drop in bites for 2004 may be a reflection of fewer dogs running at large in the Williams area. 

Table 2: Location by town of reported bites in Colusa County

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