triticale - the wheat / rye guy

Wrong Numbers

I correspond with more than one blogging Brian, but there is one in particular I think of as I friend. I look forward to seeing him the next time he passes thru town, as he has promised to take some old computer junk off my hands. It therefore troubles me to see him posting deceptive statistics. How about comparing the percentage of of the total number of animal - human interactions for each breed or species which makes the news due to negative results? Pit bulls would drop off the bottom of the chart.

It is true that the American Staffordshire Terrier has jaws and teeth which are particularly damaging on those occasions when they do in fact bite, altho they do not uniquely lock onto anything. This is why the fact that cocker spaniels are the dogs responsible for the most total bites does not tell the entire story. On the other hand, most pits are, as my son (who now travels with a potentially more dangerous canine) puts it, drooling lumps of love. Some time before he joined up with Hunter, Emrack was adopted by a stray pit. We had to take it to the pound, but the reason for this was that it was as demanding of affection as a kitten.

People who want a vicious dog notoriously choose pit bulls, and raise them to be aggressive. This is not the fault of the breed, but of those who criticize it. The same sort of miscreants also favor the AK47, despite its lack of power and accuracy, because its reputation is not based on its strong points of ruggedness and reliability, but on its supposed evil nature.

Update:

Note that if you check out the rest of the blog, always a good thing to do after going to a linked article, it is apparent that Brian is not as breed-prejudiced as I implied above. Those who are, however, are liable to continue misusing his statistics as presented.