WASHINGTON — You may not hear the theme from “Jaws” in your head when you see a cow or a dog, but the numbers say you should.
Every time a shark attacks a human being, it makes headlines; people squirm in their seats and demand something be done.
But The Washington Post, using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control, reports that while about 1 person per year was killed by a shark from 2001 to 2013, cows killed 20 people a year in the mid-2000s (mostly in farm accidents, though the image of roaming bands of bovine thugs is too chilling to dismiss completely).
Dogs killed about 28 a year, while bees, wasps and hornets took 58 lives per year, mostly because of anaphylactic shock after a sting.
And as the Post notes, auto accidents kill 33,000 people a year.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates pointed out last year that mosquitoes kill 725,000 people a year worldwide, through spreading diseases including malaria.
Suddenly those rows and rows of serrated shark teeth look positively cuddly, don’t they? Let’s go swimming!
