Supervision, not breeds, to blame for dog bites

Dear Dr. Fox: I have followed your column in the local newspaper for years.

Your response to J.G. of Palm Beach on Feb. 17 prompted me to write, as your answer did not go far enough to defend pit bulls.

I spend 25 to 30 hours a week as a dog adoption counselor and dog walker. I assist with dogmeets and playgroups, and also work with an outside trainer to help the long-term residents get adopted.

I also have a pit-mix as my second dog, and I cannot say enough about the beauty of these dogs. People need to understand that “pit bull” is not a breed, but a mixture of Staffordshire terriers and something else.

The vast majority of these dogs are sweet, loving dogs that are highly adoptable.

Many have been treated poorly and neglected, and come in undernourished and with unaddressed medical issues.

I cannot tell you how many of these dogs have been adopted by people with children and other dogs, and go on to be beloved family pets.

I am often appalled at how these dogs are unfairly treated by the media — they are just dogs, and are among the most resilient and people-pleasing.

While I agree with everything you said in your reply, I do not understand why you didn’t go further to promote what wonderful pets these mixes can be, and often are. —

C.L., Tinton Falls, Connecticut

Dear C.L.: Some readers will appreciate your letter. Others will not. But why single out just pit bulls, I ask?

To reduce the incidence of dog bites nationwide, regardless of breed, calls for better supervision — especially of children — around dogs, according to a recent review of reported dog bites in the U.S.

Thirty-four percent of children with dog bites were ages 6 to 12; 30 percent were ages 2 or younger, who had more severe injuries than older youths, reported researchers in the journal Injury Prevention.

The findings, based on data analysis for 7,900 patients ages 17 and younger, collected for the National Trauma Data Bank between 2007 and 2014, also showed that bites were more likely among girls, but boys had more severe injuries.

An article published in the Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine reported some 272 people were killed by dogs over a seven-year period from 2008-15, according to an analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

My own wonderful, gentle family dog, part Australian heeler and part boxer, was rescued from an animal shelter in a state where she would have been killed because she looks like a pit bull and regulations prohibit their adoption. Animal shelters and rescue organizations need to stop unfounded breed discrimination and summarily executing good dogs, and should instead use temperament tests and prospective owner/home evaluations.