October is National Pit Bull Awareness Month -- and in honor of it, the folks over at 1-800-Pet Meds put together a snazzy little info-graphic on the topic of facts and myths about pit bulls. I like the premise of the info-graphic, and it is a visually appealing way of telling a story that needs to be told. I'm not sure I'm buying all the data, but the general premise of this is solid and the story it tells is right.
I really like the message - and don't have enough knowledge of statistics to know how accurate they are. Wish every vet office/shelter/humane society could have a copy of something like this to actually educate people. I'd buy them in quantity to pass out locally.
Posted by: db | October 08, 2012 at 03:47 PM
Interesting. I've seen this graphic before, only it included a link to Dogsbite in the "Learn More" section. Now it does not.
Posted by: Erika | October 08, 2012 at 06:29 PM
How did I not know it was pitbull awareness month!? Thanks for sharing this.
Posted by: PoochesForPeace | October 08, 2012 at 06:51 PM
Some interesting data and slides here. Given the amount of negative press about pitbulls in general, continued use of actual data will be very helpful. Proud of Pet Meds for pulling this together.
Posted by: Adrian Meli | October 08, 2012 at 07:31 PM
I actually emailed 1-800-PetMeds with your explanation on why "dogsbite.org" is not a reputable source...and kudos to them, they thanked me for the info AND removed it. Even MORE respect and thanks.
Posted by: elizabethc | October 08, 2012 at 09:44 PM
Hmm, very interesting. I think PG county spends a lot more than $250,000 to enforce its pit bull ban. The estimate given for the district was $1 million. I think thats the main reason Jim Graham's motions for BSL never get off the ground in DC.
Posted by: Dianne R | October 09, 2012 at 09:13 AM
Elizabeth -- nice job on getting them to take it down as a source -- and glad something I wrote helped. Nice of them to be paying attention and making note -- and likewise to you for paying attention and making change.
Posted by: Brent | October 09, 2012 at 09:25 AM
Nice show of support from Pet Meds.
However, I always hate to see definitive statistics being used. In particular, the size of the dog population by breed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know of any database that allows us to determine populations by breed. Pro-BSL organizations like to cite "statistics" which can easily be criticized as inaccurate or uninformed, so I don't like to see anti-BSL groups citing figures that are just as debatable.
Posted by: Joel | October 09, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Joel -- agreed. And those numbers in particular are ones that caused me concern on this for the very same reason. I think the message is right (pit bulls, at least, how they're defined by Animal Control Officers) are very popular dogs in this country, and other breeds less so, but if you took it into account I'm pretty sure pit bulls would be 'safer' than many other breeds -- but I am not aware of any accurate source for number of dogs by breed in this country...
Posted by: Brent | October 09, 2012 at 12:54 PM