Pit bull & Ed Boks. (Beth Clifton collage)
by guest columnist Ed Boks
Is it time for national animal welfare organizations to rethink their positions on pit bulls?
Kitty Block, Matt Bershadker, Julie Castle.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Pushing bully behavior
ANIMALS 24-7 recently published Beth’s open letter to Matthew Bershadker, president of the American SPCA; Julie Castle, president of Best Friends Animal Society; and Kitty Block, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
(See Pushing bully behavior: the ASPCA, Best Friends, & HSUS in Springfield.)
In her open letter, Beth charged these humane leaders and their respective organizations with “pushing bully behavior.” The “bully behavior” came in the form of “rejecting the cries of thousands of politically voiceless animal and human victims” and “instead taking the side of the bullies, both human and animal, in the recent municipal election in Springfield, Missouri.”
Pit bull issue overhangs the Springfield, Missouri municipal council.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“No pit bull would have been harmed”
Beth referred to these organizations’ concerted opposition to the April 7, 2018 Question 1 referendum. Beth explained that Question 1 would have allowed the Springfield pit bull population to humanely decline through attrition. Had Question 1 passed, no pit bull would have been harmed; and every pit bull legally residing in Springfield would still have that home. The sole purpose of Question 1 was to restrain the breeding and importation of pit bulls into Springfield.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Beth explained that Question 1 was only designed to reduce the overwhelming number of pit bulls occupying “so much space in the Springfield animal shelters which severely limits the ability of those shelters to serve other dogs in need.”
“Nervous & fearful”
Beth justified her support for Question 1 by retracing her experiences with pit bulls throughout her career – during which time she “handled hundreds of pit bulls and found them to be consistently nervous and fearful.”
(Beth Clifton photo)
“This behavior in any dog” she says, “could predictably lead to a dangerous situation…but pit bulls are large, strong, and tenacious dogs, with documented history of having caused more serious and fatal injuries than all other dog types combined, not just recently but in every 10-year time frame since 1833.”
Beth’s experiences, and the data she cites, could not be more dramatically different from my own experience and data.
Ed Boks
“I have been called a pit bull apologist”
I have been called a pit bull apologist by ANIMALS 24-7. While this is a moniker I have never sought, it is one I have never shied away from either. Having managed three of the largest animal control agencies in the nation (Maricopa County, Arizona; New York City; and the City of Los Angeles, plus the Yavapai Humane Society in Arizona, I’m confident I have presided over more pit-bull rescues and happy adoptions than any other person in the U.S. – all without incident.
[Editor’s note: Ed Boks, by reason of having handled so many dogs for so long, also appears to have presided over euthanizing more pit bulls than any other person in the U.S.]
Over the years, I learned to love their big hearts, clownish grins and wildly wagging tails. Contrary to Beth’s seeming assertion that all pit-bulls are equally dangerous, I continually find each one to be an individual with a distinct personality.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Beth & I share some common ground”
So, it may surprise some to learn that Beth and I share some common ground. After I clear away all the emotions invested in either promoting or opposing pit bulls, I still have to deal with the numbers.
Consider this: just during the week of August 1-7, 2018, while ASPCA personnel were in Springfield urging the defeat of Question 1:
• A two-year-old boy was fatally mauled and his mother badly injured by a pit bull in Philadelphia.
• A four-year-old girl suffered multiple head injuries, including a skull fracture, inflicted by a recently adopted pit bull in Miamisburg, Ohio.
• An 18-month-old girl suffered multiple head injuries in Riverside, California, after being attacked by the same pit bull who mauled another child in March 2016.
• A 57-year-old woman was killed by her own pit bull in Chicago.
• A 66-year-old woman was killed by two pit bulls who escaped from their home in Lake Tillery, North Carolina.
This is stunning data that can only be accounted for by decades of misguided and incorrigible pit bull breeding.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Extraordinary strain & financial burden”
Consider this: In 2018, 41% of the U.S. pit bull population are homeless; 21% are less than a year old; and 19% have lost at least one home and are in a shelter or rescue.
This is an extraordinary strain and financial burden on our animal shelter programs. At the same time, the sterilization rate for all other dog breeds in the U.S. has exceeded 70% since 1990 – and the sterilization rate for the most popular small breeds exceeds 80%.
Why is it that whenever anyone in the humane community advocates strategic, targeted spay/neuter programs designed to reduce the number of pit bulls born (only to die in shelters) they are attacked by vitriolic pit bull advocacy? Sadly, this tactic seems meant to keep humane leaders in line; and to date it has done exactly that.
“Hell to pay to advocate for s/n of pit bulls”
I know first hand that it is okay to advocate for spay/neuter for all pets, but there is hell to pay when you advocate for meaningful spay/neuter programs specifically designed to save the lives of the animals dying in the greatest numbers, i.e., pit bulls!
The humane community’s collective dereliction of duty has resulted in the 2018 pit bull sterilization rate stagnating at about 20% – down from 23% in 2003, which was the highest it’s ever been. Compound this low rate with the fact that pit bulls tend to produce larger-than-average litters and you will begin to realize we’ve not yet begun to effectively address the pit bull problem in our communities.
Looking at my numbers from Los Angeles Animal Services, pit bulls represented about 27% of all dogs impounded, but about 40% of all dogs euthanized––and the reason more often than not was limited space. This is why I am now calling for targeted pit bull s/n programs.
“Asleep at the wheel”
Beth Clifton’s open letter is addressed to a humane community asleep at the wheel, who blindly support programs designed to ensure pit bulls continue to die in American shelters. If left to stand, the defeat of Question 1 will result in the continuation of a disproportionate number of pit bull deaths in Springfield shelters for decades to come.
The humane community has to wake up to the fact that the only way out of this dilemma is to design and implement targeted spay/neuter programs for pit bulls as aggressively as we do for feral cats; and for that matter, as aggressively as we pursued legislation against puppy mills – which, when you think about it, only produced dog breeds that are actually in demand – unlike pit bulls, who are primarily bred unabated only to die in U.S. shelters.
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Care to share the statistics on lapdogs tearing their elderly owners’ faces off? How about German shepard attacks? What about mastiffs? St. BErnards. How about the fearful saluki? Greyhound? Jack Russell? What about the paranoid dahsund.
Since September 1982, 44 dogs of breeds generally considered lap dogs, which breeds constitute 17.6% of the dog population of the U.S., have inflicted injuries rating 4-plus on the Dunbar scale upon a total of 34 people. Four of the victims died, three of whom had compromised immune systems and succumbed to infections that would not have harmed an adult in good health. One victim was a newborn infant. Twenty-eight victims suffered disfiguring injuries.
German shepherds and all of their mixes combined represent 2.1% of the U.S. dog population. 266 German shepherds and German shepherd mixes have inflicted injuries rating 4-plus on the Dunbar scale to 239 people, of whom 33 died; 180 suffered disfigurement.
Mastiffs, exclusive of mastiff/pit bull mixes such as bull mastiff, Dogo Argentino, Presa Canario, et al, make up about one tenth of 1% of the U.S. dog population. Forty-four mastiffs have inflicted Dunbar level 4-plus injuries upon 43 people, of whom six died; 27 suffered disfigurement.
St. Bernards make up one half of one percent of the U.S. dog population. Sixteen St. Bernards have inflicted injuries rating 4-plus on the Dunbar scale to 14 people, causing one death and 11 disfigurements.
No saluki is known to have been involved in a fatal or disfiguring attack.
One greyhound, a breed making up 1.4% of the U.S. dog population, has been involved in one disfiguring attack.
Jack Russells are about one half of one percent of the U.S. dog population. Five Jack Russells have killed two infants and disfigured three other people.
Dachshunds are 2.2% of the U.S. dog population. Seven Dachshunds have killed one person (an infant) and disfigured seven others.
Altogether, the above breeds and their mixes make up about 25% of the U.S. dog population. They have killed 47 people and disfigured 257 in 36 years.
Pit bulls & pit mixes currently make up 5.3% of the U.S. dog population. Over the same time, 6,218 pit bulls & pit mixes killed 443 people, disfiguring 4,248.
Further details are easily accessed at The Pit Stop Archive.
In a word, YES, it IS time for that conversation. For many of us, it couldn’t come too soon. And I pray that the influential and no doubt very caring leaders of major animal advocacy organizations will wake up and smell the innocent blood shed so many times by these very dangerous dogs, and make the humane and caring decision to support planned obsolescence via spaying/neutering and zeroing out of the population of pitbulls and “pitbull-like dogs” by whatever name they choose to call them. The innocent blood shed cries out for this, as do the many innocent, blameless living beings waiting in shelters and those whose lives are lost in those shelters, on the streets, and elsewhere because of the senseless bias in favor of these dangerous dogs.
CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS!
The only individuals who can solve the pit bull problem are pit bull advocates and owners. The peaceful public can’t impact the numbers of pit bulls abandoned on the streets and surrendered to shelters, only responsible neuter and spay by the owners of pit bulls can stop this suffering. Pit bull advocates refuse this surgery even when it free. Please Google this in Kansas City. They got a $100,000 grant for pit bull neuter and spay, at the end of the year nearly $87,000 of it had to be returned unused because pit bull owners ignored direct mail notices, TV and radio spots, signage, and house to house visits. It is the same everywhere.
Only pit bull owners can help starving pit bulls, the dogs are starved by their owners. Abused pit bulls? The abuse comes at the hands of their owners, not the peaceful public.
Advocates hoping to educate (and pit bull advocates have been promoting education to solve the pit bull problem for 30 years and it has never worked anywhere) should target their “education” to pit bull owners, not the peaceful public. We are the survivors of pit bull attacks or family members of those who did not survive. We got our education direct from the pit bulls.
If advocates could educate pit bull owners on responsible containment of their dogs, bred for an activity so violent that it is a felony in all 50 states, that would be a huge step forward.
Educate pit bull owners on the value of neuter and spay to prevent the horrific overcrowding of shelters, some 60% to 90% pit bulls, that would be a big step forward. Mandatory insurance for pit bull owners would be huge, survivors pay their own medical bills till their money runs out. At this point, survivors become Medicaid cases and the taxpayer foots the bill. If pit bulls were contained, insured, and neutered and spayed, and the safety of the public was protected then there would be no need or demand for regulation.
Mr. Boks, you and other breed specific advocates need to clean up your own mess, we can’t do it for you.
Not to zero in on the responsible cause of why pit bulls now dominate the shelter dog population in this country, but as long as the Amish breed dogs like livestock for income, including unlimited pit bulls, this is like fighting against the tide.
Neither Amish high-volume dog breeders nor any other high-volume commercial breeders have had any significant role in producing the perennial & perpetual surplus of pit bulls. High-volume commercial breeders focus, first of all, on the dog breeds that are in high demand, not those whom shelters are paying people to take. Pit bulls, meanwhile, begin to fight with litter mates, sometimes to the death, even before weaning, so are not profitably raised like livestock — and keeping multiple adult pit bulls in proximity, for breeding or any other purpose, is a prescription for spontaneous mayhem. Pit bull breeding, in short, is basically backyard breeding, done one litter at a time. Thousands of people are doing it, but few on a commercial scale.
There are & have been a very few Amish, by the way, who have bred pit bulls in connection with dogfighting, just as there have been some dogfighters of practically every ethnicity & culture, but disapproval of gambling is a strong moral tenet of Amish culture & religion, & to be involved in dogfighting would be to court expulsion from the Amish community.
I agree, this is an issue ripe for public conversation! But will we even get as far as conversation when even the most moderate discussions of the pit bull issue are shouted and threatened down? If you even acknowledge there’s a problem, you are cyberstalked, threatened, attacked. You’re not even allowed to say that much.
The closest thing I can compare it to are Alex Jones and others of the most extreme examples of the gun rights movement, who claim that mass shootings are nothing but media-orchestrated hoaxes perpetuated by actors. They stoop as low as to attack the families of children who were killed by mass shooters. Similarly, extreme pit bull enthusiasts claim a vast media conspiracy against a breed of dog, call attack stories ‘fake news,’ and threaten the families of dog attack victims.
The difference is, at least firearms are very much a national conversation. Most people are aware there is a problem and that there are differing opinions on what to do about it. With dog attacks and pit bull overpopulation, we aren’t even talking about it.
The other difference is a firearm is inanimate and a pit bull has will.
I would like to remind the original author and anyone else who ‘loves pit bull’s goofy grins’ that the appearance of a ‘grin’ is a direct result of their abnormally large jaw muscles that protrude out of their faces farther than any other canine, giving their heads a rounder appearance and makes their mouths ‘smiley-er’.