(Beth and Merritt Clifton)
by Beth Clifton
ANIMALS 24-7 editor Merritt Clifton was confronted at the recent AR 2014 conference in Los Angeles by several pit bull advocates, following a panel discussion of issues in animal control and sheltering with Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation general manager Brenda Barnette and Best Friends Animal Society cofounder Francis Battista.
Merritt, originally scheduled to speak for 15 minutes, had invited Barnette and Battista to participate after No Kill Advocacy Center founder Nathan Winograd withdrew, abandoning an hour-long time slot.
The ensuing discussion with the pit bull advocates was videotaped and posted to YouTube by one of the pit bull advocates, notwithstanding that the outcome scarcely favored pit bull advocacy: Merritt patiently and factually out-debated the pit bull advocates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9-2kC-hHw&feature=share
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This is simply wonderful, and I hope more people watch it. This group of kids, and their histrionics, really highlight what “pit bull advocacy” is about. I never understood what, exactly, their position was, but they seemed angry that everyone didn’t like their dogs. It appears they want to subsidize low income pit bull ownership and protect pit bull breeders. That is all I got from the exchange. They don’t offer any solution to the crisis of pit bull overpopulation.
Merritt, you mention in the video a research study on idiopathic rage in dogs, and that pit bulls possess a gene which predisposes them to this. Has this study been published yet?