Harry Shannon
Another letter to the Toronto Star which wasn’t published. But they did print others that made the same point, and more.
Background: a few years ago, the Ontario’s Liberal government enacted a ban on pit bulls. There’s now a Conservative government, and one of their MPPs (MPP = Member of Provincial Parliament) has introduced a private member’s bill to remove the ban. Today, November 22, it passed its first reading in the legislature.
One Star columnist, Thomas Walkom, supported removing the ban.
The letter:
Re It’s time to repeal the pit bull ban, Oct 28
Thomas Walkom uses inappropriate data to make his case. He has forgotten the importance of the denominator.
For example, he cites one study in which 22.5 per cent of identified dogs that bit were pit bulls. But if pit bulls made up only one per cent of all dogs, then they were far more prone to bite than other breeds. On the other hand, if 50 percent of all dogs were pit bulls then they were less likely to bite.
I don’t know the numbers of different breeds of dogs – but nor it seems does Mr. Walkom. Without them, his data are irrelevant and potentially misleading.