Proportion of fatal bites this year caused by pitbulls or pitbull mixes

[Jake Izzy]

13 out of 14%, or 93%.

Wow, that's a high proportion, considering that pitbull are about 5% of the dog population. See more, plus other interesting data and comments in this Orlando Sentinel piece from a few days ago:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-05-24/news/os-ed-front-burner-pit-bulls-pro-20130523_1_pit-bulls-vicious-dogs-many-dogs

[randome]

1. One too many '%'s.

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[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
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[bobclark86]

2. The sad part is...

We need more fatalities to figure out exactly where the problem is, as the current number are so small, even one dog can throw things off.

[get the red out]

3. They are the most abused type of dog

So I wonder if very bad owners have something to do with this also. It's a hard one, the whole chicken/egg thing. I know that dogs have tendencies bred into them (my BC mix wants to herd everything) and some people who breed pit bull type dogs don't do so with a desire for a nice temperament; also if a large, strong dog attacks it is more likely to kill than my Mom's ill-tempered, 5 lb, Papillion.

We need some serious laws and penalties for animal abuse in this country. Weed out people with bad intentions towards dogs, like dog fighting, or guarding drugs, make sure anyone who has abused a dog cannot own another after their LONG stay in prison.

Humans are responsible for dogs, we need to make sure we try to do right by them and it will help us as well.

[KamaAina]

4. Who is "Colleen Lynn, guest columnist"?

And where did she get those figures? Did the newspaper make any attempt to verify them?

Of course, I'd expect nothing less from the Orlando Sentinel, one of the worst RW cat box liners in the land.

[maddezmom]

5. Not sure about the figures but

Colleen Lynn is the founder of DogsBite.org, a national dog-bite victims' group dedicated to reducing serious dog attacks.

Here is her site
http://www.dogsbite.org/

If you google it you will find other stuff like this.....

http://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/2010/03/the-truth-behind-dogsbiteorg.html

And this:

Dogsbite.org. The website author, Colleen Lynn, a website designer, was allegedly bitten by a pit bull-type dog; consequently, her site’s goal is to spread as much misinformation as possible about pit bulls and dog attacks, primarily by twisting statistics to suit her ends and invoking damaging and hateful stereotypes. She is also known to viciously disparage and ridicule anyone who disagrees with her.

http://stopbsl.org/fortherecord/journalistresources/

[bunnies]

6. Are you todays official shit-starter?

I lost my schedule.

[Marrah_G]

7. Next he's gonna start a obesity and smoking thread followed by guns!

[HappyMe]

8. Could just combine all of

that into one mega-thread. Obese smokers waving guns around.

[bunnies]

9. lol.

and dont forget breastfeeding! Im sure he's an expert on that as well.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

10. Perfect response!

[magical thyme]

11. the total number of fatalities so far is about 74% of 2012

In other words, if the same rate continues for the rest of this year, the total number of dog attack fatalities will have declined by 26% over 2012.

Statistics are easy to skew. Given the few number of deaths annually by dog attack, the vast majority of counties will not suffer a single death in any single year regardless of whether or not pitbulls are banned.

I also wonder whether Florida is not a hotbed for dogfighting and/or the new "sport" of "trunking?" I know they have other very serious problems involving humans and animals (don't ask me about horses down there.)

While the proportion of pitbull fatal attacks has increased, that is due to the overall decrease in fatalities, since their numbers compared to 2012 are slightly slightly higher. As a result, the proportion of fatalities compared to their population is also the same or slightly higher, depending on whether their population has increased or is stable.

As I posted in my thread on fatal attacks, the website dogsbite.org is clearly biased against pitbulls. In spite of that bias, on review of the stories behind the 38 deaths in 2012, it becomes clear that it is very much a human problem.

In 2012:

24% were caused by loose dogs. In at least 2 cases, neighbors reported that the dogs had been seen loose in the past and were known to be a problem in the neighborhood. Yet none mentioned police or animal control ignoring calls to them. So bad owners allowed the dogs to run loose and do nothing neighbors failed to report. 2 cases were bad breeders, breeding poor quality dogs for sale. And in 2 shocking cases, a family member of the killed was feeding packs of feral dogs instead of reporting them to animal control to be picked up and taken to shelters.

66% were killed by their own pets. Many had 3 or more large dogs. Shockingly two "rescuers" had 5 and 10 dogs each. Taking in rescues of any breed entails a degree of risk. That is more dogs than a single person in a household can handle and manage. We are not all Cesar, who does it full-time, professionally.

16+% were toddlers and babies who were not being monitored or watched. They were either left alone with the dogs, in one case during a family fight that included police involvement -- clearly a high-stress situation -- or they were left to wander (at age 4) off the property. If you banned all the pitbulls, it would not have prevented the toddlers from being hit by a car, drowned in a neighbor's pool, kidnapped, or lost in the woods.

[Doremus]

12. Too bad half the time even experts can't identify a pitbull by sight.

Which basically neuters your argument.