ArcaMax

"The Problem with Pit Bulls" was the headline of a Time magazine story (June 20, 2014) by Charlotte Alter. My problem is with the story, not with the dogs referred to as pit bulls.

The story, filled with inaccurate characterizations, called for breed-specific mandated sterilization, and ultimately vilified dogs referred to as pit bulls.

Whenever anti-pit bull frenzy is stirred up, it typically follows a tragic incident. This instance follows the pattern. A 3-year-old girl named Victoria was mauled in Simpson County, Miss., by her grandfather's three dogs, referred to in the media as "pit bulls."

It's difficult to discern exactly what happened this past April. According to Victoria, she was alone playing with some cats before the dogs broke through the back door and attacked her. News reports on the attack made no mention of the dogs' temperament or previous history.

Donald Mullin, Victoria's grandfather, shot and killed the dogs following the attack. Mullins and his girlfriend, Rita Tompkins, were charged with child endangerment.

Victoria is the same little girl who made national news earlier this month when a Jackson, Miss., Kentucky Fried Chicken employee supposedly asked her to leave the eatery because her scarred, disfigured face was "disrupting customers." The incident made national news. Interestingly, recent reports now suggest the episode was made up to raise money for the child's treatment.

According the Time story, a study in the Annals of Surgery in 2011 found that one person is killed by a pit bull every 14 days.

That data is absurd. Do the math; there are about 30 fatal dog attacks a year, so the numbers don't work. Also, in such cases, the dog breed is not identified. Over a decade ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks fatal dog attacks, stopped keeping tabs on the breeds involved because in the end what matters is what causes an attack -- not the typically inaccurate guess targeting the breed responsible.

Dog attacks which result in a fatality make news because they're rare events and therefore newsworthy.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are nearly 70 million dogs in America, and as it turns out, dogs are less violent toward people than people are to people. Over 1,500 children died of child abuse and/or neglect within their own families in 2010 (according to the Administration for Children and Families), and there were over 16,000 homicides in the U.S. in 2010 (according to the CDC).

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