Some Pit Bull Facts You Might Like to Know

According to the leading experts on pit bulls in the nation, Merritt Clifton and Colleen Lynn, as well as other experts in the field:

There are an estimated 3.5 million pit bulls in the U.S. out of an estimated 70 million dogs.

Pit bulls represent about five percent of dogs in America.

Of the 210 fatal dog attacks occurring since January 1, 2010, 138––66%––have been inflicted by pit bulls.

Killed by a pit bull.

Pit bulls accounted for more than half of all fatal dog attacks since 1844. 300 fatalities by dogs identified as pit bulls were recorded over the past 32 years, compared to 268 by all other breeds combined. 1,624 people have been disfigured by pit bulls.

In 2014, in the U.S. and Canada, pit bulls killed 31 people.

The number of pit bulls involved in fatal and disfiguring attacks has risen since 2007 from 78 to 603 in 2014; the number of child victims increased from 30 to 264; the number of adult victims increased from 23 to 279; the number of deaths directly inflicted by pit bulls went up from 13 to 31, and disfigurements soared from 37 to 451.

As of 1961, there were about 200,000 pit bulls in the U.S.

The pit bull population has expanded twenty-fold since then, to close to four million dogs counting mixes. Human fatalities from pit bull attacks have expanded twenty-fold as well, to 30-plus per year.

About one million pit bulls - about a third of all adult pit bulls in the USA are surrendered every year to animal shelters or impounded, primarily for dangerous behavior.

About 80% of pit bulls coming to animal shelters each year are killed as too dangerous to adopt.

Half the adult pit bull population are failing in homes every year. Nothing remotely comparable has ever occurred with any other type of dog.

 

Attacked by a pit bull.