Ya know, I'm thinking there's just a lot of roaming dogs in my town in the last 2 years.
I remember how I experienced 0 dogs in all my e-biking and walking around in the first year or two and I biked a lot.
But, within the last year, I've had first-hand encounters with dogs about 7 times and I've traveled less than 1/4th the distance in total.
Two times with homeless people occupying a nearby forest, and they brought their doggies along and five times on bike in various parts. I've only had "confrontations" about twice, as I outran 3 of them. The homeless people occupying the forested area was an oddity itself, because the people didn't look stereotypically "homeless" and I've never experienced that in the past.
Looking into my local area via google, it appears there's been reports of domestic dog packs going around killing cats, so the pack I saw the other day suggests they're more common than in the past.
Curiously, it looks like there's been reports from 2011 of a pack of 5 large dog killing 100s of animals, mainly operating at night. Interesting that I saw a pack of 5-6 large dogs crossing the street one night... (I don't ride at night anymore, as a rule, and I'm starting to think that was a good decision for more reasons than dangerous drivers at night.)
I guess it's because of the great recession and how my city isn't exactly faring that well. My city's unemployment rate is about 2 percentage points higher than the national average, so I'm guessing some people are finding out they can't afford to take care of their doggie and they don't want to/can't pay the impound fee. It's hard to believe that people have collectively and suddenly become so less diligent about making sure the dog doesn't escape. I'm wondering if this trend might be playing out in other areas? Some Californian cities, maybe?