Investigate a dog bite incident and close out corrective actions

What is going on

On 8 September an animal attendant was bitten on the hand while removing a food bowl from a seized mastiff cross held in the observation block. The bite broke the skin and required medical review. The dog had been seized following a dog attack complaint, but the bite risk flag was not on the kennel card at the time. The Operations Manager has assigned you the investigation and expects a report with root causes and corrective actions by 18 September, a toolbox talk plan for the shelter team and the WHS Incident and Hazard Register updated with actions and owners. The Chief Executive Officer will review the report at the monthly welfare and safety review.

Your brief

Investigate the incident systematically, identify the root causes and failed controls, recommend corrective actions with owners and dates, plan a toolbox talk and update the register so that the organisation can show it has learnt from the incident.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the incident report WHS-26-071 in the WHS Incident and Hazard Register, the Work Health and Safety Policy and the Safe Animal Handling and Restraint Procedure.
• Review the Animal Register and Impound and Compliance Log records for the dog and establish when the bite risk was known and when the flag was applied.
• Prepare interview questions and conduct or script interviews with the injured attendant and the kennel supervisor, recording facts rather than blame.
• Build a timeline of the incident and analyse which controls in the procedure were absent, not followed or inadequate, using a simple root cause method.
• Write an investigation report with findings, root causes, contributing factors and corrective actions ranked by the hierarchy of control, each with an owner and due date.
• Update the WHS Incident and Hazard Register entry with the investigation outcome, corrective actions, owners and a target closure date.
• Plan a toolbox talk on handling flagged animals using the Toolbox Talk Record Template, with three key messages drawn from your findings.
• Draft a two-paragraph summary for the welfare and safety review and identify whether the incident meets any regulator notification threshold.

What someone in this role would produce

• Investigation report with timeline and root causes
• Updated WHS Incident and Hazard Register entry
• Toolbox talk plan
• Summary for the welfare and safety review