Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Twenty Years Ago

. . . pit bull breeds made up 1.53 per cent of New Zealand's dog population but the dogs were responsible for 18 per cent of all attacks.
The Daily Post

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Revised July 11, 2012, 11:01 AM EST

On July 3rd SRUV posted an appeal to the AVA.  As if to provide an exclamation point, on July 4th the Daily Post published an account of a pit bull attack on a seven year old child, and on July 9th the Northern Advocate published an account of a horrifying night-time attack on the victim of a car crash.

Rotorua animal control supervisor Kevin Coutts revealed startling statistics when he spoke with the media:
He said american pitbull breeds made up 1.53 per cent of New Zealand's dog population but the dogs were responsible for 18 per cent of all attacks.
"They are totally misrepresented as far as statistics go."
He said between 50 and 60 people a year reported being attacked by dogs in Rotorua and the city followed the national average with about 18 to 20 per cent of those attacks being caused by pitbull breeds.
Mr Coutts also said only about 20 per cent of all dog attacks were being reported.
Readers familiar with dog bite statistics will recognize the eerie correspondence between the numbers Mr Coutts quotes and the dog attack statistics in the US of twenty years ago. In the ensuing decades the advocates for fighting breeds have lobbied against Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) in America, and today we face an explosive growth of the pit bull population and a catastrophic public safety menace. Since 2009 pit bulls have killed, on average, 25 humans a year in the US. Put another way, that's one pit bull homicide every two weeks.
Now Australia confronts a similar future, with advocates of fighting breeds using arguments lifted directly from the US. The AVA Policy 6.15 guilelessly admits to this borrowing:  the brief, 34 word policy defers to experience in other countries.

Why would any country want to share our experience? 

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Sources:
   Seven-year-old mauled by neighbour's dog; Daily Post
   Pitbull attacks car crash victim;  Northern Advocate





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