Merritt Clifton: An ordinance which only takes effect after a dog has exhibited dangerous behavior is no defense against bully breeds, whose first demonstration of dangerous behavior is often the incident in which they kill or maim a person or another animal. Of the 4,384 dogs involved in fatal and disfiguring attacks on humans occurring in the U.S. & Canada since September 1982, when I began logging the data, 2,776 (63%) were pit bulls; 536 were Rottweilers; 3,536 were of related molosser breeds, including pit bulls, Rottweilers, mastiffs, boxers, and their mixes. Of the 514 human fatalities, 261 were killed by pit bulls; 84 were killed by Rottweilers; 384 (75%) were killed by molosser breeds. Of the 2,484 people who were disfigured, 1,652 (66%) were disfigured by pit bulls; 314 were disfigured by Rottweilers; 2,063 (83%) were disfigured by molosser breeds. Pit bulls--exclusive of their use in dogfighting--also inflict about 10 times as many fatal and disfiguring injuries on other pets and livestock as on humans, a pattern unique to the pit bull class. Surveys of dogs offered for sale or adoption indicate that pit bulls and pit mixes are less than 6% of the U.S. dog population; molosser breeds, all combined, are 9%.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 04:35:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015