In a recent letter to the editor of The Vancouver Sun, the founder of DogsBite.org, Colleen Lynn, shines a light of truth upon falsifications written in an “opinion” piece published by the same newspaper. Below is the submission, the published letter was edited.
Re: Opinion: Punish aggressive behaviour of individual dogs, not the breed
DogsBite.org, a national dog bite victims’ group, addresses falsifications written by Rebeka Breder and Rebecca Ledger published on Sept. 17. Their opinion piece responds to an article by Stephen Hume, “Hume: Certain dog breeds and owners combine for violence.”
The co-authors falsely state, “Hume bases his facts and statistics on data that is neither peer reviewed nor published in scientific publications, and is therefore unreliable.” The co-authors then cite DogsBite.org as one source of Hume’s data.
Both authors ignored the peer-reviewed scientific study that Hume wrote about in his article — Mortality, Mauling, and Maiming by Vicious Dogs, by John K. Bini, MD, et al., published in the Annals of Surgery in April 2011.
Pit bull injury data from DogsBite.org is cited in several areas of this study. Thus the statement by Breder and Ledger is doubly fictitious. Hume indisputably relied upon peer-reviewed data and DogsBite.org data has been published in a peer-reviewed scientific publication.
The pair next state: “This American-based group is run by an attack victim whose only agenda is to exterminate what it considers to be ‘dangerous breeds.’”
DogsBite.org is a tax-exempt public charity organization with a board of directors, advisors and volunteers with the following mission: “A national dog bite victims’ group dedicated to reducing serious dog attacks.” Since our inception in 2007, DogsBite.org has corresponded with hundreds of dog bite victims. Such correspondences cannot be published for privacy reasons.
Hume got it right, which is what triggered the erroneous response by Breder and Ledger.
Colleen Lynn
President & Founder
DogsBite.org
Pit bull advocacy fails to realize that the people who speak out for regulation of dangerous dogs, the people they characterize as “haters” are just ordinary folks who probably had no thoughts on pit bulls one way or another. Until, and this is the key point, they became victims of the violence. We pretty much all say the same thing after our attack “nobody should have to go through this, somebody should do something.” It comes to us that we are the “somebody” and we demand regulation. Ms. Biniaz is a high profile somebody, and she is courageous to use her status to focus attention on the maulings. Emma’s parents are somebody, the Soleskys are somebody. Every parent, and every pet or livestock owner who contacts legislators to demand action, they are somebody, every one of them. Colleen Lynn is a powerful somebody, she shines a light on the need to regulate a known danger. Thank you Colleen and thank you Miss Canada! – april 29
More comments about DogsBite.org and founder Colleen Lynn.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
-Plato
“Facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable.”
-Werner Herzog
Dear Colleen Lynn,
DogsBite.org has likely prevented more maulings and deaths by pit bulls than we’ll ever know, by its persistent precision and courage in offering the facts to the public. In the storm of half-truths and outright lies, DogsBite.org offers objective and true information about the pit-bull type dog and the mayhem it is committing daily on us and our neighborhoods. Not a thing on the site is invented or exaggerated, all is checked and double checked, information we can trust. The site is a place where real experts find a platform, experts who prefer scientific honesty to toeing the politically correct line and lining their pocketbooks. All this in the face of rabid attacks by the fans of this type of dog, who above all don’t want the public to know the truth and have their weapon taken from them. In a nutshell, Colleen, I’m grateful that after your attack, you decided to do your best to prevent the same from happening to the rest of us and our children — and to our normal dogs, our cats, horses, cattle in the fields. Thank you, and happy birthday to DogsBite.org! You have saved lives. – Alexandra Semyonova, Netherlands
More thank you letters to DogsBite.org and founder Colleen Lynn.