Radio Canada issues impressive take-down of dogsbite.org and Merritt Clifton

A couple of weeks ago, the government in Montreal made the decision to ban 'pit bulls' from the city. However, nearly immediately, a judge ordered a temporary suspension of the ban as, among other problems, the definition of what did or did not constitute a pit bull was unclear. At one point the judge told the City's lawyer that when defending the law that he needed to come up with better arguments, or better experts: 

Judge says after hearing SPCA's arguments, he has real concerns. Suggests city's lawyer comes up with better arguments or experts #pitbull

— Jaela Bernstien (@jbernstien) October 3, 2016

The two sides of the 'pit bull debate' in the United States are pretty lopsided. On the side of breed-specific legislation is bad policy, you have quite literally the entirety of every organization of professionals in the country -- including the largest collection of veterinarians in the country (AVMA), the largest collection of animal control officers (NACA), the Center for Disease Control, the American Bar Association, and all of the large animal welfare and professional dog training groups. 

On the side in favor of breed specific legislation, you quite literally have Merritt Clifton, and dogsbite.org, neither of which deserves to be given anywhere near the credibility of the professional and government organizations that they oppose. 

I've written a lot about these two people before (links below), but Radio Canada did an amazing job of dismantling the two entities -- and the Canadian media for reporting data issued by the two of them. The original article is in French (please click the link to show your support), but for everyone's benefit, I've run the article through Google Translate and will post in its entirety here. It will read a bit clunky, as translations often, but you will get the gist for sure. Here's the text from Radio Canada:

Pit Bulls: Anecdotal Evidence Frequently Quoted By the Media

Statistics on dog bites from anti pit bull groups are frequently cited in the Canadian and US media as reliable sources. These data are, however, very far from reality.

The two groups in question, Animals and 24-7 DogsBite.org militate openly to ban pit bulls. They regularly publish statistics on deaths and bites caused by dogs. However, their data represent only a small portion of severe attacks, and those of Animals 24-7 contain several errors.

A tiny portion severe attacks

The author of the site Animals 24-7, Merritt Clifton, publishes annual data on the number of attacks by dogs in Canada and the United States. The most recent report of the group claims to recognize almost all serious attacks between September 1982 and September 2016, a period of just over 34 years. Mr Clifton said he collects his data only from the media, but he claims to have a comprehensive picture of the situation.

The report of the 34 years studied, among all breeds, the report contains 7045 dog attacks causing serious injury, 4424 attacks that maimed or disfigured victim, and 675 deaths. The author defines serious attacks as those where the victim was killed, mutilated or suffered injuries requiring advanced medical care. According to these data, the pit bull type dogs were responsible for 64% of severe attacks, with 66% of attacks that maimed or disfigured the victim, and 51% of deaths.

So it would on average each year 207 serious attacks and 20 deaths in Canada and the United States.

But these figures are very far from reality.

According to a government agency of the US Department of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2008 in the United States, nearly 9,500 people were hospitalized for dog bites, and forty died of their wounds or much more than the figures given by Animals 24-7. Of these, there were 600 fractures, 300 operations that required skin grafts, and 1100 operations on the muscles and tendons. This data does not specify the breed of dog involved.

However, in one year, more people were hospitalized for serious injuries by dogs that what counted Animals 24-7 in 34 years.

Data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons going in the same direction. In 2015, the United States, there were 28,079 reconstructive surgeries for dog bites, and in 2000 this number was 43,089. It should be noted that the same person can undergo more surgery to the same injury.

This significant difference between the data and 24-7 Animals reality can be explained among other things that the majority of dog attacks are not publicized. The head of Animals 24-7, Merritt Clifton, said by email that it is possible that some cases of serious injuries have been missed.

The DogsBite.org site, meanwhile, regularly publishes figures Animals 24-7, in addition to holding its own list of incidents. The founder of DogsBite.org, Colleen Lynn, herself a bite victim, however, said her site does not purport to identify all serious bites of dogs, but she lists the majority of deaths. It also indicates that the site is not based only on media, but also draws its data from other sources, such as police reports, and sometimes his site publishes cases that have not been mentioned in the media .

Several Inconsistencies

Animals of 24-7 the data underestimate the attacks by other breeds as pit bulls. For example, according to this group, in 34 years, there would have been 66 serious attacks by chow-chows and 67 by Labradors, across the US and Canada. However, according to the Department of Health of Texas, in 2000, only in that State, there were 67 severe bites by chow-chows and 39 Labradors.

In the report of Animals 24-7, it happens that the same dog breed is found separated into categories or that different races are grouped into one category. For example, the author considers that the "presa canario" (Canary Mastiff) and the bull-mastiff as one breed of dog and it groups together in the same category. In fact, these two dogs have different backgrounds and even different physical appearance. The Canary mastiff originated in the 15th century in the islands of the same name, while the bull-mastiff appeared in the late 19th century England.

Conversely, there is a category for "blue heeler", one for the "Australian blue heeler" and another for "Queensland Heeler," when it is a single race dog: Australian Cattle dogs. It also includes dog breeds that do not exist, as the East Highland Terrier.

Merritt Clifton also says on its website that the Cane Corso is a pit bull and mastiff cross, which is impossible, since the Cane Corso is an Italian dog that has existed since ancient Roman times, while the pit bull originated in England in the 19th century.

Also, sometimes when several dogs are involved in an attack, the incident is classified only in the category pitbull. For example, in 2007, a 18 year old man was attacked by 13 dogs, including a pitbull and 12 unidentified race, but this attack is still classified as a pitbull category.

Statistics from ads

In its report on dog attacks from 1982 to 2016, Merritt Clifton indicates what proportion each race represents in the total population of dogs. However, there is no census of dogs across the US and Canada, and mandatory registration imposed by municipalities is not always respected by the owners, so it is impossible to know the population of each dog breed in North America.

So to estimate the dog population, Merritt Clifton explains consulting small dog sale ads on various websites for the month of July 2016. He concluded that pit bulls account for 5% of dogs and considers that these figures are representative of the population of dogs across Canada and the United States over a period of 34 years.

Merritt Clifton replied that he had done that because there is no other database of dog populations. "In Canada and the United States, only 10% of dogs were registered in 1982 and is about 25% today. No American city has a higher recording rate to 40%, "he says.

Indirectly attributed dog deaths

The 24-7 Animals website sometimes considers a person was killed by a pit bull even if the dog was only indirectly involved. Such cases are classified in the same category as those where the dog bit the victim even when the coroner says the dog was not responsible for the death.

Here are some cases Animals 24-7 considers deaths from pit bulls:

In 2009, Wisconsin, a woman of 55, Louanne Okapal, died after being hit in the face by a horse. The horse was frightened by a pitbull.

In 2009, a woman of 48 years in Connecticut, Teresa Foss, died of a head wound after being hit by a pitbull. The dog had not bitten.

In 2010 a 64 year old man from Texas, Richard Martratt, stabbed a pit bull and shot a Catahoula, because the two dogs had attacked a border collie on his land. The man was not attacked by the dogs, but the authorities arrived, he collapsed and died of a heart attack.

In 2010, Georgia, a 14-year-old Miracle Parham, fled after being frightened by a dog that witnesses described as a pit bull. She was fatally hit by a car.

In 2013, a man of 63 years, James Harding, was struck by a car after trying to get away from two pit bulls.

A 6 year old girl was strangled by a chain to which was attached a pit bull. The year and place are not specified.

Another case cited on the site DogsBite.org concerns a 57 year old man from Tennessee, James Chapple, who was seriously injured by the hands of pit bulls in 2007. Four months later, he died of atherosclerosis and alcohol problems. Still, DogsBite.org accounted for as a death caused by pitbulls.

In contrast with the scientific community

Both groups are very critical of the scientific experts. The DogsBite.org website will even use the term "scientific whore" ( "Science whore") to qualify some experts. The founder of the site, Colleen Lynn, defends herself by saying that the term does not she just and has been used only three times since the creation of the site in 2007. 

Moreover, contrary to studies published in scientific journals, statistics of these groups are not verified by independent experts to ensure its validity.

The researcher Karen Overall Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, analyzed all dog bite statistics from studies published between 1950 and 2000 worldwide. His research shows that the breeds responsible for the greatest number of attacks vary according to the year of the study area.

She is critical of the methodology used by the groups that are mainly based on the stories appeared in the media. "The reports by the media and the police are almost always incomplete, she said, and there was no independent confirmation of the breed involved. These publications use these reports as if they were infallible. "

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 Well done by Radio Canada in the breakdown of why these two sources should not be given any sort of credibility that competes with the professional organizations. 

More on Merritt and Colleen:

Huffington Post: The Academic Imposter behind the Pit Bull Hysteria

KC Dog Blog: The Truth Behind dogsbite.org

Pit Bulletin Legal News: Multiple articles about dogsbite.org

KC Dog Blog: More misinformation, deceit and attempts to mislead from Merritt Clifton

Lassie, Get Help: "Dangerous breeds", dog bite statistics and the Merritt Clifton Report", Part 2, and Part 3

KC Dog Blog: Creating Fear in the Media and Politics

KC Dog Blog: Merritt Clifton - when the numbers just don't add up

KC Dog Blog: More deceit from Merritt Clifton attacking shelter pets and information availability

KC Dog Blog: Why "statistics" based on media reports are invalid

 

Comments

[Emily Sieger]

well, not QUITE "literally" "all" animal welfare organizations.. you forgot PETA's support for BSL. Who can blame you for wanting to wipe the fact of their existence from your brain?

[jan]

HSUS supported BSL and in fact the killing of any "pit bull" confiscated until the backlash from Vick when they saw they could make $$$ on the lives of these victims they did a 180 I wish I had a screen shot from their "teen magazine" where they stated all pit bulls from fighting rings should be killed and dont forget Kory Nelson of Denver notoriety.. he made it his crusade to make sure pit bulls were banned everywhere he could ( and on his companies time)

[Cheryl Huerta]

It's about time...and there's plenty of information here by the Canadians that can be used when helping communities avoid pit bull bans when non-breed specific dangerous dog ordinances are much more effective.

Thanks as always Brent. Great job!!!

[Brent]

Emily - I guess I don't consider PETA an "animal welfare" group. They function far more like a fringe extremist group.

Jan - HSUS has certainly had questionable history when it comes to pit bull type dogs -- but they've come a long way in the past couple of decades. As for Kory Nelson -- I think with any cause there will be individuals that exist outside the mainstream with fringe viewpoints....but their opinions tend to be best treated as fringe viewpoints; as would definitely be the case with Nelson who is more inclined to defend his own legacy...

[Nikki]

PETA also supports euthanizing majority of the dogs it takes in as well as stealing dogs from families and euthanizing them - they are currently in a lawsuit for one of those stunts. I don't think the extremists at PETA really count as an animal welfare group.

[Emily Sieger]

well of course PETA is not REALLY an animal welfare group, they're a cult of animal-hating sociopaths. But we kid ourselves if we don't acknowledge that for MOST people, they are indeed such a thing and they get press attention as if they were.

[Denise DeNapoli]

Great read! Thanks for breaking it down that way. I knew they were skewing the stats, but this is simply crazy. Not surprising, but nuts

[Lan Hoang]

Why would someone kidnap a dog from somebody house, and then euthanize the dog? Just why?

[Jen Brighton]

Not to mention that DBO, a tax-exempt organization that supposedly has the peoples' best interests at heart, has a history of turning on dog bite/attack victims who do not concur with its stance.

It's no surprise DBO is in favor of bans. After all, most of us are banned from trying to carry on a rational conversation with anyone on the site. How many educational sites that take donations have a whole section entitled, "Maul Talk Manual," a guide to understanding pit bull owners and advocates? The time spent on such an inane group of sayings.

The site is disturbing and the comments from its fans are often more so. It fosters hate and at times violence.

It has an ownership manual section for owners of "normal dogs" or "dangerous breeds." Say what?! How about a section for what each dog owner should know about dog saftey, period?

Signed, the "Pit Sociopath"

[Brent]

Absolutely Jen. When DBO first launched their site their original "about us" page was straight-forward in that their goal was to ban specific breeds of dogs. They have since then changed it to try to make themselves seem more legitimate -- but thanks to Google, the old "about us" page lives in the archives:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071106104437/www.dogsbite.org/about-dogsbite.htm

[Dianne Singer]

I call the DBO fanatics the Scrapbookers, because all they do is cut and paste.
Not an original thought - or any thought - from any of them.

[Chris_Ontario]

Clifton complained to the Ombudsman, and it found his complaints baseless. Review by the Ombudsman, CBC/Radio-Canada French Services, complaint regarding an article by Bouchra Outak published on ICI Radio-Canada.ca on September 9, 2016, entitled "Pitbulls: des donnees non scientifiques frequentmment citees par les medias"

http://www.ombudsman.cbc.radio-canada.ca/_files/documents/Ombudsman%20review%20Merritt%20Clifton2.pdf

---

[Ruby]

PBLNN has published the public records of Settle animal control that cover the incident o Colleen Lynn's being bitten. Those records, complete with photographs show her to be a complete liar.

http://legal.pblnn.com/pro-bsl-experts/dogbiteorg/109-collen-lynn-seattle-animal-control-records

[Michael]

I already posted this in another thread but this one is newer so here goes

I thought i would share what i wrote to an ignorant person on this subject.

I will state this my uncle was breeding these dogs in the early seventies. and while he himself showed the dogs in the ADBA sanctioned events. he did get his original stock from the fighting lines of the APBT. So i will say that i grew up around these dogs and even when i was younger visited men like Louis b colby. and despite what many people may think colby was still breeding his dogs down from match winning stock until he got sick.

now this just my experience and others may differ. the colbies were dog fighters make no mistake about that but what i witnessed on that yard was nothing but respect and admiration for these wonderful dogs. they were not merely objects to this man. they were not just thrown outside and forgotten about. they were highly socialised around adults and children. Now miss Lynn loves to point out the one tragedy that occured where a nephew of john p was killed by one of these dogs. Now i really want you to think about this for a moment. this man bred, kept, and sold some of the greatest and well known fighting dogs this breed had ever seen. there were hundreds of dogs on this yard over the years. and only one incident that is quite extraordinary i think and just goes to show the true nature of these dogs with people. His dogs were showed great affection from the children and adults alike they were exercised on a regular basis and fed well.

Again some may disagree but in my experience the best representatives from this breed are the ones that were originally dow from fighting lines they were not loving, confident, athletic, loyal, and brave dogs inspite of their heritage they were this way because of it. Many of the men i met over the years were gentlemen and quite educated in dog behaviour and life. Now dont get me wrong i have met people that were complete scum and dregs on society involved in this breed. but that came more when the act became a felony. truth is many family men and bluecollar men and women were involved in what they call a sport. Now while i dont participate or condone the act i find things like using dogs to hunt and catch wild boar much worse. for one the dogs who hunt wild boar get seriously injured and die much to often and the other animal is screaming in pain and agony and wants nothing more than to survive

The men i have met over the years also had some dogs that could quite nicely coexist with other dogs. now mind you they did not get along with every dog but they were not mindless killing machines like some may have you believe

Also miss Lynn would have you believe that every single APBT born was a killing machine and would gladly take its death fighting. That is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. Talk to anyone who knows anything about these dogs and you will see a dog like that is a rarity.now while the breed as a whole is much gamer that any other breed there are a lot of variations within the breed itself. most dogs were controllable and the older and wiser the person got the more they liked the confident laid back kind of APBT.

Now i will say not just these dogs but dogs in general are not for everyone. Most people are ignorant and impulsive. they dont bother to study the breed they want they do not seek out reputable breeders or rescues. a reputable breeder may not register his dogs but you can bet he has handwritten pedigrees on them all and can tell you about each individual in the pedigree at least back to the fifth generation. rebutable breeders under the roles that genetics and environment play when breeding dogs. they know there dogs in and out.

I will also say that the APBT as a whole is a great breed. but popularity and irresponsible breeders have had a negative effect. Now again this is only my experience but most of the APBT i have owned and seen were dog aggressive and extremely human friendly almost to a fault where if you read this history many were stolen right off there property because they were so friendly and trusting. Now while they were dog aggressive they were not mindless killing machines some were good with certain dogs. but these dogs should not be off leash nor any dpg because most owners do not have complete control and as far as dog parks i think they are a bad idea in general as do most trainers and behaviourists and these dogs and all dogs should be contained in there house or outside safely and securely

Here are some things ive seen and learned over the years involved in this breed

first of all you clearly dont know dogs and even less about fighting dogs. all you idiots are the same you all treat dogsbite.org like gospel and believe their myths. i will tell you the truth here and now. fighting dogs like pitbulls are dog/animal aggressive. many are but but some are not. dog aggression does not equal human aggression. these dogs were bred to be aggressive towards dogs only. now another thing dogsbite.org likes to lie about and say even in the history of these dogs which is documented to see there were human aggressive dogs. now that is not a complete lie but not totally true. that site will mention zebo, virgil, bullyson and a few others well what she fails to say is these so called aggressive dogs were what any respected animal behaviourist would call only territorially aggressive. and they were far from unpredictable. gthey were only aggressive when in there spot or kennel and only towards strangers. once let off or out of there spot they were quite sweet. in fact zebo was a house dog and bullyson actually spent time in the house. Now virgil i knew personally. while he was aggressive on the chain off of it he was a big puppy. n ow here i=are some facts i witnessed myself. virgils best friend was thomas the cat yes a cat that slept in his bed with him. he also could walk around the entire yard and not attack one dog not one. and actually played with puppies and yearlings and could even be in the same crate as his daughter.

These dogs were not bred to show mindless unpredictable aggression they were bred for extreme human friendliness which shows in the pit because they are literally the only breed of a dog a stranger could approach during a fight and have no worries of a bite being redirected onto them. there are thousands of accounts of this all one has to do is the research. many people blame dog fighting for the aggresiveness while it is deplorable and reprehensible dog fighting has produced some of the most brave stable, easily trainable and affectionate dogs around. and i am not like your usuall person who sayss genetics dont matter they do but not as much as you think. if you actually studied genetics like i have there is a thing called heredity which is the variation of genetics and environment between individuals among a breed. and what was discovered over and over again was behavioural traits such as dog aggression are moderately heritable which selection for the trait can work but environment plays a big part also

also if breeds that were genetically selected to show human aggression like dobermans rotties and shepherds were as well documented as the history of the APBT i can guarantee you would find many more dogs in those three that mere and are much aggressive than the sometimes dog aggressive APBT

also people on both sides of this debate do harm to the breed there is only one pit bull it is not a blanket term it is short for american PIT BULL terrier just like rottie is short for rotweiler. and another myth is while these dogs when raised around kids are good with them they were never ever nanny dogs and no dog should be left alone with any dog. now you will probably say the american staffordshire is the same yet when a study done on the genes of working dogs vs show dogs of the same breed was done it showed that the working type was genetically different from the show type. also these dogs and dogs and general do not belong off leash no matter how friendly a dog is with other dogs there can always be the chance of play escalating into a fight and that goes for any breed. the majority of owners literally dont have a clue when it comes to dog behaviour or body language especially when the body language is subtle like a yawn or a lip lick which depending on other body language mean the dog is uncomfortable. all the latest studies, which i will look up again if someone calls me on it all agree that while the APBT can be dog aggressive they are no more aggressive towards people than any other dog and dog bites themselves are usually due to mistakes made by people. one study even compared so called dangerous breeds with the golden retriever which many will argule is the most docile breed and the study found no difference between the dogs when it came to aggression toward people.

I can go on all day and literally run circles around you APBT hating fools . another study was also done where experts in the animal field were found to misidentify the APBT 46 or 48% of the time and these were people who are literally around dogs all day everyday so imagine how many stupid owners and media mislabel the breed and in this study they used DNA to prove the people who guessed wrong

One last thing i challenge you to find me one incident in the past 5 years where a UKC or ADBA registered purebred APBT was involved in a dog bite i bet no one can

So i say all of that to say this many people are hurting this breed from both sides of the debate. The pro pitbull people hurt them by saying everyone should own one which is ridiculous as most people shouldnt even own a goldfish and the Anti Pit bull people like our ever so lovely LMAO miss lynn by spreading lies and misinformation this breed would be much better off if it were to go back to the time when most people had no idea what a true pit bull was. The biggest thing that hurts all breeds is popularity

[Mark B]

Well, it's a shame I found this article so long after it was posted, but who knows, maybe someone will still read this. Emily Seiger, I'm no PETA apologist but if you would have spent a few seconds doing your homework you'd see that the BSL legislation PETA is proposing is to protect Pit Bulls--their site even says, "PETA Helps Pit Bulls". They're proposing mandatory pit bull spaying/neutering because 400,000+ of them are being killed every year in high-kill shelters.

Go to any big city shelter and you'll see that it's just overrun by Pit Bulls. I went to a Los Angeles County shelter the other day and Pit Bulls made up a good 80% of the population. Well, at least they got a few good meals before they were put to death. I just now went to the LA city animal shelter website, and 29 of the first 35 dogs up for adoption were Pit Bulls or Pit Bull mixes. So many innocent faces.

There's a Pit Bull sitting next to me, trying to mooch a cracker, right now. Trust me, I'm a Pit Bull lover to my core, and I applaud PETA for this. Anyone who wants to have an intact Pit Bull should have to pay a fee for that privelege, and the fine for having an illegal intact Pit Bull should be stiff. There are just far too many losers getting ahold of Pit Bulls and not training them, mistreating them or just abandoning them, and the Pit Bulls pay dearly for it. It's so heart-achingly sad. Like any dog--more so than many other breeds--Pit Bulls were bred to love people and far, far too often we abuse them, throw them away then kill them. I can't think of a sadder story than this.

[Brent]

Mark,

Your comment is actually loaded with misinformation. #1. Just because a website says "we help pit bulls" doesn't mean that their actions actually help pit bulls.

400,000 pit bulls are not being killed in shelters each year. Recent estimates are showing about 900,000 total animals killed in shelters, with the majority being cats. So that # is very exaggerated.

While it's true that pit bulls are disproportionately killed in shelters, most of them are not coming in as unwanted litters. Most shelters in the US have tremendously few puppies of any breeds.

The primary reasons pit bulls are disproportionately in shelters is a) they are exceptionally popular dogs, among the most popular in the US and b) there is a significant amount of housing restrictions -- which causes them to be displaced from their homes at a higher rate (and adopted at a lower one).

It's interesting that you mention LA City -- which has had a ban on breeding all dogs for more than a decade -- and yet, it's not been terribly effective. Kansas City, where I live, has one of the longest breed-specific spay/neuter ordinances in the nation, and yet the shelter there still has the same problems as other shelters because the neutering requirement doesn't solve the real problem, and creates others. You can read more here: https://btoellner.typepad.com/kcdogblog/bslmsn/

[elitepediatrics]

Amazing post !!thanks for share it with us yearly check up for kids Clifton