by Merritt Clifton Fifty thousand dogs per year, including at least 34,250 pit bulls, attack other animals, according to ANIMALS 24-7 analysis of dog attack data from 2013-2014. Of the 82,000 animal victims per year, 59,000 die; 23,000 survive their injuries. Among the dead are 15,500 dogs, 95% of them attacked by pit bulls, and […]
Record low shelter killing raises both hopes & questions
by Merritt Clifton U.S. animal shelters are now killing fewer cats and dogs than at any time in the past 60 years––nearly 300,000 fewer in the most recent fiscal year than just one year earlier, and just 8.6 per 1,000 Americans, the lowest ratio on record––but is the recent dramatic progress really saving animal lives? […]
Oakland hires former SF animal control chief Rebecca Katz to face Nathan Winograd and pit bull advocates in their lair
OAKLAND––The City of Oakland on October 29, 2014 announced the hiring of former San Francisco Animal Care & Control director Rebecca Katz, 43, “to oversee the transition of Oakland Animal Services into a stand-alone department in the city administrator’s office.” Katz is to begin work on November 17, 2014. Oakland Animal Services previously has operated […]
A fireside message from Merritt Clifton
I don’t always warn people about pit bulls. Sometimes I talk about Chihuahuas. And, with the help of a few dedicated assistants, I investigate and write about every aspect of the human/animal relationship, from animal rights and animal welfare to zoological conservation and zoonotic disease control –– always focused on what we can do […]
“Don’t bully my breed, but we will bully the victims.”
by Beth Clifton A tribute art memorial entitled “Out of the Blue,” honoring 30 recent victims of fatal dog attacks, was unveiled on September 24, 2014 in Grand Rapids, Michigan by Wyoming, Michigan resident Joan Kowal as an entry in ArtPrize, an annual outdoor art contest attracting upward of 1,500 entrants and more than 400,000 […]
An impromptu debate about pit bulls
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, […]
Large retrievers still nearly twice as popular as pit bulls
An ANIMALS 24-7 electronic survey of 206,014 classified ads offering dogs for sale or adoption confirms that large retrievers are still by far and away the most popular dogs in the U.S., births of pit bulls and their close mixes are continuing to increase at the rate of about 10% per year, and Dachshunds have […]
Pit bulls were 32% of U.S. shelter inventory in June 2014
About two-thirds of the dogs in U.S. shelters as of June 2014 were housed by tax-funded animal care and control facilities, 22% were housed by open-admission humane societies, and 12% were housed by selective admission no-kill shelters and rescues, according to the annual ANIMALS 24-7 summer survey of shelter dog inventory. Of the dogs housed […]
Polling, public opinion, & pit bulls
by Merritt Clifton If online polls are to be believed, from two-thirds to three-fourths of the first people to respond to almost any polling question pertaining to pit bulls favor strong breed-specific legislation to protect themselves, their children, and their animals from attack. Yet time and again the polling numbers reverse as the numbers of […]
KFC story may have been a hoax, but 3-year-old pit bull victim’s scars are real
The story that 3-year-old Victoria Wilcher was asked to leave a KFC restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi may have been fabricated, but her scars from a pit bull attack are real and well documented. Wilcher’s injuries became internationally known through reportage by Charlotte Alter of TIME.com, the online edition of the TIME magazine news weekly, […]