(Beth Clifton collage)•
• Four more fatalities, at least 3 by pit bull, raise 2026 dog attack toll to 50
• Record dog attack & pit bull attack death count in 2025 for 4th year in a row
• Dog attack deaths & maimings, U.S. & Canada, 1982-2025 log
• 20% of fatal pit bull attacks in 2025 resulted from a victim trying to save a pet
• U.S. hits 70+ fatal dog attacks & 50+ deaths by pit bulls for 3rd year in a row
• Record dog attack death count in 2024; Detroit pit bull owner sent to jail
• Record 71 dog attack deaths in 2023 included also record 57 by pit bull
• Pit bull attacks on other pets lead to a third of disfiguring human bite injuries
• Yes, there is data on how many dogs, especially pit bulls, kill other animals
• Dogs killed 62 Americans & three Canadians in 2022; pit bulls killed 41
• Fatal & disfiguring dog attacks in Canada, 2004-present
• 10-year totals: pit bulls kill 81% of pets & livestock animals killed by dogs
• United Kingdom dog attack fatalities, 1991-present
• South African dog attack deaths, 2004-present
• How many other animals did dogs––& pit bulls––kill in 2021?
• All 59 of the 2021 dog attack human fatalities (U.S. & Canada)
• All 49 of the 2020 dog attack human fatalities (U.S. & Canada)
• All 49 of the 2019 dog attack human fatalities (U.S. & Canada)
• All 42 of the 2018 dog attack human fatalities (U.S. & Canada)
• All 40 of the 2017 pit bull attack human fatalities (U.S. & Canada)
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wtf. that many people died by dog in 2019? How can that be. I’m in a country of 23 million, and no one that I can find died by dog attack directly, but in 2019, eight people died of rabies from bites. EIGHT! I’m not a statistician, but one can see something is up in America. But what?!? Are dogs more vicious in N. America? Is dog training better in Nepal than in America? Or like the people living in the USA, have all the dogs gone mad?
The problem is not that “dogs” are more vicious in North America than in Nepal, or in the United Kingdom and South Africa for that matter, which have comparable statistics relative to human and dog population, but rather that the U.S., Canada, U.K., and South Africa all have pit bull populations in the vicinity of 5% of all dogs, accounting in North America for 179 (76%) of the 236 human deaths by dog in the five years 2018-2021, in the U.K. for 46 (82%) of the 56 human deaths since the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 supposedly banned pit bulls but exempted them under any name but “American pit bull terrier,” and in South Africa for 41 (75%) of the 55 fatal dog attacks since 2004.
Sharing with gratitude and all of the usual thoughts and feelings, and with appreciation for that explanation, Merritt & Beth, as well as that apt observation by Jigs Gaton (final sentence).