re: Pitbull attacks, child dies

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Special Interest Adocacy Groups Statistics Objective?

Dogsbite.org is a "victim" advocacy group founded by Colleen Lynn. Its goal is to advocate on behalf of Breed Specific Legislation by lobbying legislators, aggressive internet advocacy, and most importantly, creating dog bite statistics that meet their agenda. PBLN previously highlighted the overall lack of objectivity at dogsbite.org here. This article will discuss why dogsbite.org statistics lack scientific basis, and how mainstream organizations have discredited attempts to create breed specific dog bite data. Relying on dogsbite.org bite statistics, is like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse.

CDC Says Breed Dog Bite Statistics Cannot Be Measured

Since the late 1990's the Center for Disease Control ceased tracking dog bites by breed/type, as it was their determination that such studies do "not identify specific breeds that are most likely to bite or kill, and thus is not appropriate for policy making decisions related to the topic....There is currently no accurate way to identify the number of dogs of a particular breed, and consequently no measure to determine which breeds are likely to bite or kill." Makes a little sense; if you don't know the total number of dogs in a breed, you can't create a percentage of the number of dog bites per breed. So where are recent statistics generated from that are often published in news stories today? More importantly, how are they obtained? Is there any science behind the methodology of compiling these bite statistics by breed/type?

Who is Merritt Clifton And What Are His Credentials?

Most news stories obtain their Pro-BSL statistics from dogsbite.org. As noted above, Colleen Lynn started this anti-pitbull blog in 2007 as a result of what she decribed as a vicious pit bull attack. PBLN has previously reported on the evolution of this preventable accident into the myth of vicious pit bull attack. Initially, Lynn compiled her dog bite data from a study done by Merritt Clifton. Nobody has any idea what his raw data was, and none of his statistics are consistent with what independent peer reviewed research shows. He has no qualifications to do scientific research into dog behavior. Out of all the dog bite reports and information available in 2008, including the CDC and AVMA, Lynn chose Merritt Clifton's self published unscientific and uncredentialed report? Yes. It is the only report that agrees with the agenda of DBO.

DBO Fatal Dog Attack List Number Conflicts With CDC

Lynn has complied a Fatal Dog Attack list which includes 130 fatal dog attacks in the United States between 1900 - 2004. The problem with this list? The CDC shows 300 human dog fatalities between 1979 - 1996. Thus the 100 year DBO list has less than half of the total number of bites than the CDC 17 year list. Which list comes from a more objective source?

Identification of A Pit Bulls In Attacks Misrepresented

Lynn admits she has no expertise in dog behavior, identification, or dog bites. She is simply a web designer. So how does she decide what dog to put in the pit bull category? As many as possible? PBLN has already exposed the Philadelphia case where news sources unanimously agreed they had initially misrepresented the breed involved in a fatal attack: it was not a pit bull but a Cane Corso. DBO's response? The ASPCA conspired to change the breed to Cane Corso. Did this attack end up as a fatal pit bull attack in the statistics? This is not the only case of misrepresenting the breed of dog involved in an attack. In looking at DBO's historical attack list linked to actual media stories, one can quickly find stories that list the breed of dog as English Bull Dog, Boxer, or Boxer mix. Others fail to list the breed of dog at all, other than to identify it as a mixed breed. Yet all of them are classified under the pit bull breed.

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