Apparently a six-figure sum is required. That’s the word from Elizabeth Harrington, who reports for the Washington Free Beacon.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is spending nearly $400,000 to build a website for kids to learn how to be safe with their pet dogs.
The government tasked the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) with creating “A Website to Teach Children Safety with Dogs,” which will then be tested on four to six-year-olds.
“Several programs exist to reduce pediatric dog bite risk, but few are empirically- supported or theoretically-motivated,” a grant for the project states. “None are widely disseminated. This study builds from existing child dog bite prevention programs to develop and then evaluate a website to teach children safe interactions with dogs.”
The two-year project has cost $390,798. The grant argues that the website is needed because dog bites result in over 800,000 doctor visits, 6,000 hospitalizations, and 12 deaths a year in the United States.
The website is being designed to “help children and their parents perceive personal vulnerability to bites.” …
… Several websites already offer safety tips for how children should interact with dogs to avoid being bitten, “Doggone Safe,” “Doggone Crazy,” “Safe Kids Safe Dogs,” and “Be a Tree” among them.
