KC DOG BLOG

The Turning Tide

Last night, Clayton, MO (Population 16,000) in suburban St. Louis UNANIMOUSLY voted to repeal its ban on "pit bulls". Instead, the laws will now deem any animal to be dangerous "based on demonstrated conduct and characteristics and not mere assumptions...."

I've not read the full context of the bill, but it sounds like they followed through with details for behavior-based standards, as well as an appeal and hearing process to protect owners as well. 

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Bradford City (Population 9,000) passed a measure to remove "pit bulls" from it's dangerous dog list.  In this case it was brouth to the city's attention that the law violated Article V Sec 459-509A of the Pennsylvania State statutes that prohibit municipalities from enacting laws targeting specific breeds. 

Thus, the city solicitor and the police chief looked at the issue and said they wanted the law "off the books." And now, it is.

Then, 11 days ago, Waterloo, WI passed a repeal of its breed specific law. 

These communities have now joined Canton Township, MI; and Bonner Springs, KS; in repealing their breed-specific laws already this year. 

This is FIVE communities already this year that have repealed their breed bans in favor of breed-neutral, behavior based laws. It's January 29th. Others, like Aurora, CO; are also currently looking at repeals.

Six years ago it was rare for a community to repeal its breed ban. However, now, cities are overwhelmingly deciding to replace their breed-targeted laws with breed neutral laws that focus on the the bahavior of the dogs (and owners). Having five communities in a single month (which isn't over yet) repeal their bans is a huge testiment to how quickly the tide is turning.

Logic, common sense, and the advice of experts is taking priority over the "hysteria of the moment." This is good for communities. And good for dogs. And good for pet owners. It's great to see the turning tide.

Why "statistics" based on media reports are invalid

Earlier this week, I posted a report from an advisory group from an advisory group that was appointed by the Bonner Springs, KS City Council. In the report, they provided a very detailed explanation as to why they unanimously favored repealing the city's 24 year old breed ban.

One of the things they noted was that there seemed to be very little support for breed bans -- and that said support was based off of websites that relied solely on media reports for their data. I'm going to post their statements again:

"The research for articles and statistics presented difficulties as the majority were anti Breed Specific Ordinances. The few that were in favor of BSOs generally justified their positions with statistical data generated by dogsbite.org.  Research of this website found the data to be extremely distorted with many myths presented as facts....because no one, including the CDC, maintains statistics of attacks by breed, the party who maintains the website gathers statistics based on a review of newspaper articles for reports of dog attacks. This method would not be embraced by any statistician, as this would lead to greatly skewed and inaccurate results."

I was glad to see this called out, as this is true of dogsbite.org and is even more true in the absurd Merrit Clifton Report.  Both rely entirely on news reports to compile data, that they misinterpret statistics. They're not. 

To demonstrate this, I thought I'd share an example from a completely unrelated area that a came across a few weeks ago. 

Apparently, Slate was working on a report on gun violence in the United States and was calling on media reports to gather data. However, when they were done, they realized that their database of people killed by guns was roughly 1/3 of the CDC count of the number of people killled by guns. 

Why the discrepency?  Turns out, it's suicides. That because the media seldom reports suicides (I think the rationale is justified BTW) basing analysis of gun deaths based on media reports showed a completely distorted view of gun violence in America. Here are a couple of charts from Marginal Revolution:

The Media’s Picture of Gun Violence (suicides in red)

The CDC’s Picture of Gun Violence (suicides in red)

As you can see, the media reporting in this case is neither a comprehensive portrayal of gun violence in America, nor is it a statistically representative sample. In fact, statistically, it's entirely misleading.

The same is true for dog bites of course. The media doesn't attempt to cover every dog bite that happens in this country (nor should it), nor does it necessarily attempt to cover every major dog bite in this country. There is even evidence to suggest the media doesn't even cover every fatal dog attack.

The National Canine Research Council has done an excellent job that of reporting over the years how dog attacks including certain breeds of dogs garner far more media attention than others.

And then there are the ridiculous stories like this one about a child that was "attacked" by a pit bull.  You can see the child's devastating injury from the "attack" at the left (click to enlarge). (Thanks Dog Hero for pointing me to the story).

I think we could all agree that if the media reported ever dog bite story that was equal to severity to this one we'd get very little accomplished on our local newscasts.

This, and others, highlight exactly why anyone who forms their opinions on dangerous dog policies based on media reports (or based on the opinion of anyone who does) is destined to be making an inaccurate conclusion based on data that is neither comprehensive nor a statistically representative sample. 

If you want to start making communities safer, a Community Approach to dog bite prevention is a great place to start.

 

 

Canton Township (MI) repeals breed-specific vicious dog ordinance

Officials in Canton Township (MI) (Population 76,000) unanimously repealed the breed-specific provisions of its vicious dog law. 

The changes came after two residents in the community appealed to the Board of Trustees on behalf of their dog Loki -- a dog believed to be a pit bull/American Bull Dog mix.

Superviosr Phil LaJoy said the revised ordinance defines a vicious dog "based on the actions of the animal rather than due to a perceived predisposition."

The Board of Trustees is scheduled to make a 2nd and final vote on the new ordinance next week.

Congrats to the great folks in Canton Township for supporting the logical change.

(Editor's note: This blog has been corrected to illustrate that this was actually in Canton Township (MI), not (OH) as originally noted.

Bonner Springs, KS Repeals Ban on Pit Bulls (& great info on the story you need to know)

Last night, the community of Bonner Springs, KS (a suburb of Kansas City; population 7500), voted unanimously to repeal its 24 year-old ban on pit bull type dogs in the community. Bonner Springs now joins Basehor, KS; Riverside, MO; and Osawatomie, KS; all suburban, Kansas City communities who have repealed their breed-specific laws in the past 8 months.

The repeal came after Titan, a dog owned by Debi Baker was taken from the Baker family home because he was declared to be a "pit bull". The Baker's were given 15 days to get rid of their family pet, and were really not given an opportunity to fight the ruling that he was a "pit bull."

While Titan was being boarded at a shelter in Lawrence, KS (where the family, including two young daughters would visit each weekend), the Baker's talked to the city council about a possible repeal of the law banning pit bulls. At the time, councilman Tom Stephens noted that "We don't want to hinder someone in their freedoms to have the animal of their choice, but we do have to always make sure that the safety of the community as a whole is the number one issue being addressed."

So the council opted, as many do, to form an advisory committee to look at the law as a whole and see if it was still necessary. Obviously, after a unanimous vote by the council, the committee deemed the law was not necessary.

This is all great news, but I think it's really important for everyone to read the letter the advisory committee in Bonner Springs sent to the entire council upon researching their decision.

The advisory group was made up of 12 members, including four city council members, a municipal judge, and two members of the police force, as well as other community leards.  The information relayed by the committee not only shows that their information was well-researched and thoughtful, but also shows that they were quickly able to identify truthful, factual sources vs bogus ones. Here are some snippets from the document -- that you can read in its entirety here. Note that the recommendation to repeal the breed ban was unanimous also by the committee -- which is pretty telling.  Bold added for emphasis is mine.

"In the fall of 1990, the City Council passed the current BSO (Breed Specific Ordinance) that banned pit bull breeds. I reached out to a former City Councilmember who was on the City Council at the time to understand the enactment. He related that Bonner Springs had not had any issues up to that time but that KCK (Kansas City, KS) experience issues involving dog fights and the use of pit bulls in those illegal endeavors. KCK decided to ban pit bulls in hopes that they could curtail the dog fights and the Bonner Springs City Council decided to follow suit...."

This is an interesting note, because many communities across the country banned pit bulls in the late 80s and early 90s after the promotion of stopping dog fighting actually caused dog fighting to be the "hysteria of the moment" and thus, many communities banned 'pit bulls' to stop a problem they didn't have. While dog fighting does exist, and is horrible, misdemeanor pet ownership laws that keep law-abiding citizens from owning certain types of pets have never been an effective way of preventing the felony crime of dog fighting.

"When we reached out to other municipalities...there was no specific pattern that could be found, not by population, geography, etc. The only consistencies we found were those who have BSOs seemed to have passed them based on being proactive (did not actually have an issue at the time of enactment) and those who chose not to have a BSO did so as they believed it did not actually address the real issue of dangerous animals as a whole."

Note, more cities passing laws to solve problems that did not exist.

"The research for articles and statisitcs presented difficulties as the majority were anti-BSOs. The few that were in favor of BSOs generally justified their positions with use of statistical data generated by DogsBite.org. Reasearch of this website found the data presented to be extremely distorted with may myths presented as facts.....Because no one, including the CDC, maintains statistics of attacks by breed, the party who maintains the website gathers statistics based on a review of newspaper articles for reports of dog attacks. This method would not be embraced by any statistician, as this would lead to greatly skewed and inaccurate results."

Nailed it. 

"In discussion with those whose jobs put them on the streets and potentially in harm's way, the majority of those individuals related that pit bulls weren't necessarily the issue but loose and not properly confined animals was the biggers issues. They believed that irresponsible owners and the allowance of dogs that have shown aggressive behaviors, not just pit bulls, are the real issues.....A proactive method to identify Dangerous Animals would better serve the safety of the community over a BSO."

There is more in the letter and worth the read. It's thoughful and well researched throughout.

Congrats to the residents of Bonner Springs who have elected city leaders who get it, and are making smart, thoughtful decisions on behalf of their community as they join the growing list of communities that are repealing old, breed-specific laws. With the wealth of new information that is available, it is great to see so many people using that information and making the necessary changes to breed neutral, behavior-based laws.

KC Pet Project 2013 year in review

2013 was a very fun, challenging and successful year for KC Pet Project.

After a retail adoption space in the Zona Rosa Shopping Center that we had opened for the holidays proved to be amazingly successful, In February, we opted to make the space permanent. (Ouside of the space is pictured left).

In April, KCPP hosted Aimee Sadler and her "Playing for Life" program. It was a very educational experience for all of us.

We've stuck with the Playing for Life dog playgroup program and it has been amazing for the shelter and for the dogs. We have a very old, small shelter and the dogs are kept in very tight quarters. Prior to the playgroup program our dogs suffered from very high arrousal and it made the kennel area very challenging for staff, volunteers and adopters. 

However, now the stress level has definitely improved. Dogs are more adoptable. Our staff knows more about the dogs' behavior than before, and the dogs are getting much-needed exercise and socialization. 

In July, we officially announced 12 consecutive months of having a live release rate of 90% or higher. This was an exciting time for our organization -- and what we were striving for when we took over the shelter in January 2012.

In October, I was excited to be invited to speak at the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference in Jacksonville. It is amazing to be in one place with so many great people who are doing so many great things in their communities. Very inspiring.

Later in October, we participated in the ASPCA Mega Match-A-Thon. For the event we adopted out 228 pets in 3 days -- that allowed us to get most of the dogs and cats in the the shelter adopted.  

The year was definitely a successful one.

In total, we completed 4,516 total adoptions; 2883 dogs, 1,633 cats. We also adopted out an additional 93 pigs, goats, chickens and "others". This was a 50% increase in adoptions vs 2012 (1,503 total). 

Much of this success is due to our satellite adoption center at Zona Rosa where we did more than 1600 total adoptions this year. 

We returned 1,062 dogs and cats to owners (1,041 dogs, 21 cats). We also transferred another 792 dogs and 356 cats to other shelters or rescue organizations. 

In total, we created 6,911 total positive outcomes for dogs and cats on the year.

We had a total intake of dogs and cats of 8,179 (5479 dogs, 2700 cats). This was a 20% increase over where we were in 2012 (1333 total animals!). 

This has been a remarkable turnaround for a shelter than as recently as 2008 was killing more than 60% of the animals that came into it.  Here is the trendline:

 

For the year, KCPP had a total Live Release Rate of 92% (using Asilomar definitions). If you include those that died, it was 89%. 

We believe that based on our intake, and Live Release Rate, that we are the 4th largest open admission shelter in the country to achieve a 90% or higher live release rate.

You can see the entire year end report here.

 

 

Top 10 Posts from 2013

As one year moves on, and another one emerges, the end of a year creates a lot of opportunities to look back at the year that was.

It was a busy year for me personally -- and as such, I did less blogging here than I have in most past years.

But in spite of that, thank you to everyone who continues to come back to this site day after day, week after week and share some of the posts, thoughts that are relayed here and also engaging in the dialogue.

As we look back at 2013, I'm going to highlight the 10 most popular posts of the year -- based on information from Google Analytics. 

1) (Almost) Horrifying Video highlights why human behavior is so important in judging dog behavior --  In maybe the largest landslide ever, this post was by far the most popular of the year. It features a video of a child and dog interaction where the dog (in this case a Rottweiler) gives every warning signal imaginable that it is distressed and not enjoying the interaction while the child interacts with the dog while the parents laugh at and film the interaction. It's painful to watch, but a good reminder of how the role of the humans in dog/human interactions is crucial to the story when these interactions turn negative.

2) Dog Attack Fatalities - 2012 Final Report -- every year this is among the top-read posts. In the post we try to look at causal circumstances that led up to the attacks for a more accurate look at why these rare tragedies occur.

3) More misinformation, deceit and attempts to mislead by Merrit Clifton -- Clifton has long been a hater of 'pit bulls' and continues to use false data to try to justify his hatred. This blog post broke down another Clifton article that not only used false data, and misleading data, in the article, Clifton also showed the fallacy of his own dog bite data set. 

4) New study points to many factors related to dog bite fatalities -- this post from December highlights a new study that looks at contributing factors in dog bite related fatalities over a 10 year period. It's well done, and will hopefully change the conversation from decades-old studies that focused on "breed" and not animal husbandry issues.

5) The Results of Breed-specific laws in Aurora, CO - Aurora, CO appears to be considering a repeal of its law targeting specific breeds of dogs. In the years since the law was passed, the number of bites in the community has increased 67%, and 1200 dogs have been killed directly because of the ordinance. The results of breed specific laws are consistent -- with no increase in public safety, and a lot of dead dogs.

6) Understanding Cause and Effect when it comes to Mandatory Spay/Neuter Laws -- At present, almost no major animal welfare organization supports mandatory spay/neuter (MSN) laws. Most people prefer to spay/neuter their pets, and the reason most people don't is because they cannot afford it. Providing access to low cost spay/neuter services has proven to be an effective solution to this problem, where MSN laws have shown to be completely ineffective, and deadly for the dogs (and cats). In spite of the evidence, a lot of people still seem to support MSN because they "hope" it will work, in spite of the evidence that it will not.

7) Rethinking Shelter Dogs and Social Influences -- thoughts from the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference -- This overview of Kim Wolf's presentation featuring how poverty, lack of pet-friendly housing and resource deserts (among other issues) are highly influential to putting pets at risk in our nation's shelters.

8) The Common Denominators - a look at three, tragic, fatal dog attacks in one week and the common factors in all of them.

9) KC Pet Project logs 12 months of No Kill Success -- our organization here in Kansas City celebrated 12 months of No Kill Succes. As recently as 2008, the city shelter only saved 38% of the animals coming into it. However, with new leadership and committment (and a LOT of hard work by an amazing staff and volunteer group) we celebrated 12 consecutive months with a 91% live release rate.

10) Omaha's breed-specific law "successful" at increasing the number of bites -- more breed-specific law failure -- this time in Omaha, where the number of dog bites has gone up 21% since the city targeted 9 breeds of dogs five years ago. The results are consistent with all other failed attempts at targeting breeds in the name of public safety.

Thanks to everyone who has read, commented and helped inspire this blog over the past year. Here's to more positive change in 2014.