Breed ’em & weep

Pit bulls top ‘bite’ list

Pit bulls chomp on more New Yorkers than any other breed of pooch in the Big Apple, troubling city data show.

American pit-bull terriers and mixes accounted for 2,610 bites between 2015 and 2017 — 30% of all dogbite cases, according to the most recent city Department of Health stats.

The tally is more than seven times any other breed — despite pit bulls being just the sixth most common breed of licensed dogs in New York City. (Yorkshire terriers are the top dog.)

Shih Tzus were the second worst NYC biters with 364 attacks, followed by Chihuahuas, with 344.

Pit bulls are known for their square heads, large shoulders and muscular bodies. They’re a descendant breed of the English bull and terrier, which was bred for bull-baiting and other animal blood sport. Pit bulls are the favored breed for illegal dog-fighting rings.

Most pits “exhibit some level of dog aggression,” according to the United Kennel Club‘s profile.

Earlier this month, a Wisconsin mother had her arms ripped off while defending her 4-year-old from a raging pit bull.

The New York City Housing Authority has banned residents from keeping pit bulls since 2010.

Bronx bitten hardest

Bites by the breed were most common in The Bronx, as well as Far Rockaway and East Harlem, according to the data — all areas with a higher-than-average concentration of public housing.

New York City had a short-lived ban on the breed, under a 1989 measure signed by Mayor Ed Koch after a string of brutal attacks by pit bulls. The ban was repealed in 1991.

Michelle Serocki, executive director of Pit Bull Advocates of America, has lived with pit bulls for over 20 years and rehabilitated dogs bred to fight.

She said bite statistics can be misleading because dogs that decades ago would have been “labeled mutts” now get reflexively recorded as “misunderstood” pit bulls — when a DNA test might show something else entirely.