THE long-cherished belief that the Moon affects animal behaviour has been dealt a crushing blow. Previous studies have suggested that dogs are more likely to bite people when the Moon is full. But Constantine Frangakis of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Eleni Petridou of the University of Athens looked at more than 2600 dog bites in Greece. Their controlled study, to be published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, found that bites were not linked to the phase of the Moon.
They did turn up some other associations, however. People are more likely to be bitten at weekends and during…
