www.NoPitbullBans.com » About CDC Bite Stats
About CDC Bite Stats
Lately, certain politicians, who claim to be well-researched but are anything but, have cited Centers for Disease Control dog bite statistics* to “prove” that bully breeds are inherently vicious. Because so many politicians have cited the CDC report of late, we thought we’d take a look at the CDC statistics and see if we could glean some kind of meaning from this oft-cited report. If you’d like to read the report for yourself, see “Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998. The report appears to show “pit bulls” as being responsible for nearly one-third (31.13%) of human fatalities over the twenty year period from 1979-1998, and certainly such eyebrow-raising findings merit closer scrutiny. But as we’ll show, the statistics are largely inaccurate for a multitude of reasons.
The statistical high rate of fatality due to alleged “pit bull-type dogs” is rife with inaccuracy simply because bullies are the most newsworthy breeds, as the CDC readily admits:
“..to the extent that attacks by 1 breed are more newsworthy than those by other breeds, our methods may have resulted in differential ascertainment of fatalities by breed.” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 838).
With the knowledge that the CDC statistics are inaccurate, and the methodology by which the statistics acquired flawed, we can easily begin to poke holes in those arguments which BSL supporters use to make their claims about “pitbulls” as dangerous. One flaw in the statistics comes from the difficulty on the part of the average person (and even the experts) to identify a breed of dog accurately, especially under extreme stress such as occurs during an attack (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 838). As such, many victim and bystander reports are specious. For instance, a person could be bitten or killed by a Labrador, and if the victim or witnesses claim it was a “pitbull,” then the breed would most likely be reported accordingly. In other words, breed identification is subjective. With the media reporting a majority of the time on “pitbulls,” which breed of dog do you think will be cited as responsible most often by victims of dog bites? The media has worked the idea of “pitbulls” as vicious into the collective conscious and in turn victims of dog bites often draw on this erroneous media reporting to finger “pitbulls” as culpable for a dog attack whether the dog responsible was a “pitbull” or not.
Much like the media, the CDC is also unable to get their reporting correct, but the CDC at least has an excuse: missing population data. In addition to breed misidentification, the CDC statistics are inaccurate because they are not based on “reliable breed-specific population data” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 838). Therefore, it is hard to discern how much of the “pitbull” population is prone to bite since the numbers of the “pitbull” population are unknown.
Another problem in acquiring breed data for “pit bull-type dogs,” as the CDC defines them, is that there is no breed called “pit bull-type dog.” Housed beneath this designation are at least twenty different breeds of dog. Lump twenty breeds of dog together and you will certainly have what looks like a breed problem as relates to dog bites and dog-bite-related fatalities! What you’ll also have is a massive skewing of the statistical data rendering the findings erroneous and misleading. The CDC is not to blame for the designation “pit bull-type dog.” Most of the reports they have been given list the breed as “pit bull,” though there is no breed called “pit bull.” There are American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers which often get referred to by the slang term “pit bull,” but so too are several other breeds of dog like Presa Canarios, Cane Corsos, Spanish Alanos, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Bandogs, Dogues Brasileiros, Dogo Argentino, Guatemalan Bull Terriers, American Bulldogs, Boxers, Bull Mastiffs, Bull Terriers, English Bulldogs, and even Rottweilers, Akitas, and Chow Chows.
Identification difficulties aside, there are other fundamental problems with the CDC bite statistics. Despite what BSL proponents believe, there are mitigating factors involved with bully breed dog bites specifically:
“…it is imperative to keep in mind that even if breed-specific bite rates could be accurately calculated, they do not factor in owner-related issues. For example, less responsible owners or owners who want to foster aggression in their dogs may be drawn differentially to certain breeds” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 839).
What the CDC means by “owner-related issues” is the tradition of exploitation that bully breeds have endured since their inception. Owners of these dogs, particularly now, who use them for “street” dog fighting often torture bullies to make them vicious. Torture as relates to a “street” fighting dog often includes: starvation, socialization deprivation, electrocution, steroid abuse, beating, excessive treadmill training, water torture, and being staked to a short chain for the whole of their existence. Worse still is if/when they lose fights, these dogs, who’ve been tortured their whole lives, are often strung up and hanged, starved to death, beaten to death, shot, or set on fire alive. The “lucky” ones are often simply let go to roam the streets of our cities. Indeed, many of these let-go pit fighting dogs have been involved in attacks, though the cities or municipalities in which these attacks occur refuse to admit to it and often propose BSL to divert attention away from the real problems: gangs, drugs, and the socio-ecnomic disparities which drive youths to the gang and drug lifestyle.
Ultimately, there are several factors which affect any dog’s inclination to bite:
“…sex, early experience, socialization and training, health (medical and behavioral), reproductive status, quality of ownership and supervision, and victim behavior” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 839).
But bullies have all these factors affecting them in addition to being the most exploited breeds of dog in existence. Still, it is a testament to the quality of the breed that even though many are unsocialized, tortured, and otherwise ill-used, very few are human-aggressive. I hesitate even to include abuse as a factor since even when they are abused most bullies are incredibly friendly and loving towards humans. You can thank over a hundred years of proper breeding for this trait.
Bullies have become easy scapegoats for politicians who can’t or won’t face up to the real issues, like gangs and drugs. As such, municipalities have begun passing breed-specific legislation (BSL) but,
“…breed-specific ordinances raise several practical issues. For optimal enforcement, there would need to be an objective method of determining the breed of a particular dog. Pedigree analysis (a potentially time-consuming and complicated effort) combined with DNA testing (also time-consuming and expensive) is the closest to an objective standard for conclusively identifying a dog’s breed. Owners of mixed-breed or unregistered (ie, by a kennel club) dogs have no way of knowing whether their dog is one of the types identified and whether they are required to comply with breed-specific ordinances. Thus, law enforcement personnel have few means for positively determining a dog’s breed and deciding whether owners are in compliance or violation of laws” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 839).
In addition to the difficulty of determining a dog’s breed, BSL also brings up constitutional issues. Under the 14th amendment, states cannot deprive citizens of their right to life, liberty, or property. Because our pets are our property, we have the right to Due Process afforded us under the 14th amendment (and under the 5th amendment should the federal government try to pass nationwide). Due Process was incorporated into the constitution to ensure that “no one is deprived of life, liberty, or property arbitrarily and without opportunity to affect the judgment or result. This minimum protection extends to all government proceedings that can result in an individual’s deprivation, whether civil or criminal in nature…” How then can any government — federal, state, or local — legally pass BSL without first giving owners of dogs a chance to affect the passage of the BSL?
The 14th amendment also contains what is called an Equal Protection Clause, which provides that, “…no state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In terms of BSL, equal protection under the 14th amendment means it is unlawful for states to pass legislation which unfairly deprives some dog owners of their dogs while other citizens, though their dogs too have the potential to bite, are not deprived of their dogs. Further, how is it constitutionally lawful to ban citizens’ dogs when it is difficult if not impossible to definitively determine breed?
The CDC too has pondered the legal ramifications surrounding BSL:
“When a specific breed of dog has been selected for stringent control, 2 constitutional questions concerning dog owners? fourteenth amendment rights have been raised: first, because all types of dogs may inflict injury to people and property, ordinances addressing only 1 breed of dog are argued to be underinclusive and, therefore, violate owners’ equal protection rights; and second, because identification of a dog’s breed with the certainty necessary to impose sanctions on the dog’s owner is prohibitively difficult, such ordinances have been argued as unconstitutionally vague, and, therefore, violate due process” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 839).
It is our position here at NoPitBullBans.com that it is never legal or within constitutional bounds to pass breed-specific legislation simply because science is unable to prove that bullies are inherently dangerous. Nor can breed be determined definitively enough to warrant owners’ deprivation of their property (their dogs). Additionally, BSL has not been statistically proven to work. The CDC concurs:
“Breed-specific legislation does not address the fact that a dog of any breed can become dangerous when bred or trained to be aggressive. From a scientific point of view, we are unaware of any formal evaluation of the effectiveness of breed-specific legislation in preventing fatal or nonfatal dog bites. An alternative to breed-specific legislation is to regulate individual dogs and owners on the basis of their behavior” (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000 Vet Med Today: Special Report 839-840).
Because BSL is fraught with many fundamental constitutional and logistical issues, it is also much more expensive than vicious dog laws which punish not the breed, but individual acts of dog aggression, making owners responsible for their dogs’ behavior.
Actually, the CDC offers much more practical and inexpensive ways of curbing dog bites and dog attacks such as proposing and enforcing leash laws and laws against dog fighting, better Animal Control enforcement (which often is simply a matter of needing more personnel), educating owners about the importance of spaying and neutering, and encouraging dog training and socialization. Another key area needing improvement is the amount of free-roaming dogs. Breed-specific legislation does not prevent dog attacks related to free-roaming dogs since the same irresponsible owners who let their dogs free-roam before the breed ban was passed will continue to disregard the law after a ban is passed (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 840).
So to recap, what do we really know about bullies based on the CDC report? We know that it is difficult if not impossible to discern breed with any certainty even for experts. We know that because of the difficulty surrounding breed identification that dog bite statistics and dog-bite related fatalities related to bully breeds are greatly skewed. We know that there is no breed of dog called “pit bull” or “pit bull-type dog.” We know there is no scientific evidence that one breed of dog is more vicious than another. We know that breed-specific legislation is expensive, impossible to enforce, and abounding in constitutional issues.
What we don’t know for certain is why politicians continue to propose breed-specific legislation when they know it doesn’t work. Municipalities pass breed bans — usually as a result of recent attacks by dogs that may or may not have been bullies — to appear to the public as if they are responsive to what the media posits is a breed problem. As such, our beloved bullies take the fall for societal problems. But now that you are armed with the truth about CDC bite statistics, you can challenge the next politician who errantly cites the CDC report as “proof” that bully breeds are vicious and dangerous. The only thing the CDC report proves is that bully breeds are victims of humans overwhelmingly more often than humans are victims of bully breeds.
*See what the recent decision from the Ohio Appeals Court has to say about CDC statistics by clicking here.
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