Colleen Lynn Quietly Admits Breed Bans Don't Serve Public Safety But Wants Them Anyway

Dogsbite.org Quietly Admits Reality of Breed Bans

Colleen Lynn, in an interview you can read in full here, quietly admits what we have known all along: that breed bans don't serve to decrease all dogbites. The relevant part of the article states:

Lynn agrees with arguments that breed-specific laws do not reduce the number of dog bites. But she stresses the need for pit bull bans anyway. "It's not meant to lower all dogbites in a city," Lynn said.

She goes on to say that she wants them anyway. This is the first time I have seen this admission from Lynn. She and her supporters have previously taken the position that breed discriminatory legislation does work to increase public safety, and not just decrease pit bull bites.  In an interview with Debra Bresch and again a few weeks ago in a Huffington Post roundtable discussion, Lynn has cited the San Francisco experience to make her point. And she has continued to make the argument despite the fact that there is no real conclusive evidence that breed bans reduce all dog bites. In fact, the data reveals just the opposite. Brent Toellner, who runs KC Dog Blog, has looked at the numbers from almost every place from which he could obtain data. In nearly every case where breed discriminatory legislation has been enacted overall dog bites have not decreased. This includes the UK, Denmark, Omaha, Sioux City, Ohio, and Aurora. We all know about Spain and the Prince George County Task Force. There are other failures too numerous to mention here, but suffice it to say that there is overwhelming authority to support the premise that breed bans do nothing for overall safety with respect to all dog bites.

Lynn's admission then, serves to underscore the fact that she is not out for overall public safety with her breed ban agenda, which is a major part of the dogsbite.org mission statement. In fact, if you listened to her Huffingtonpost interview, you wouldn't even know breed bans were the main thrust of her work. In that interview she stressed mandatory spay neuter of pit bulls as her goal. 

It seems that the core breed ban position of dogsbite.org and Lynn's public statements are at odds. But like any politician, it appears Lynn calibrates her message depending on the audience. It may be that this change in position is intended to give her credibility when she preaches outside of the choir. We shall see.

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Dogsbite.org Dogbite "Statistics" - The Fox Guarding the Henhouse?

Dogsbite.org A "Victim" Advocacy Group

Special Interest Adocacy Groups Statistics Objective? 

Dogsbite.org is a "victim" advocacy group founded by Colleen Lynn.  Its goal is to advocate on behalf of Breed Specific Legislation by lobbying legislators, aggressive internet advocacy, and most importantly, creating dog bite statistics that meet their agenda. PBLN previously highlighted the overall lack of objectivity at dogsbite.org here. This article will discuss why dogsbite.org statistics lack scientific basis, and how mainstream organizations have discredited attempts to create breed specific dog bite data.  Relying on dogsbite.org bite statistics, is like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse.

CDC Says Breed Dog Bite Statistics Cannot Be Measured

Since the late 1990's the Center for Disease Control ceased tracking dog bites by breed/type, as it was their determination that such studies do "not identify specific breeds that are most likely to bite or kill, and thus is not appropriate for policy making decisions related to the topic....There is currently no accurate way to identify the number of dogs of a particular breed, and consequently no measure to determine which breeds are likely to bite or kill." Makes a little sense; if you don't know the total number of dogs in a breed, you can't create a percentage of the number of dog bites per breed.

So where are recent statistics generated from that are often published in news stories today? More importantly, how are they obtained? Is there any science behind the methodology of compiling these bite statistics by breed/type?

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Colleen Lynn Charges Copyright Infringement

Colleen Lynn Has FuZupf's U-Tube Video Removed
Based on Alleged Copyright Infringement 

In August, Pit Bulletin Legal News broke the story of Colleen Lynn's infamous Seattle, Washington pit bull attack.  Recently we were contacted by a YouTube user asking permission to use the information and material in a video version of the story.  Since all of the information in the PBLN article is a matter of public record the user was given our approval to use the information.

Shortly after posting the video, FuZupf contacted PBLN concerning a notification received from YouTube that a copyright violation complaint had been filed by Colleen Lynn, Founder of Dogsbite.org.

The information provided from the PBLN report was all public record.  We contacted YouTube, a subsidiary of Google.com to inquire about their process.  I was then directed to the legal department via email contact.  To date, I have not received a response to the inquiry made about their counter-notification procedure.

It appears that the only "copyright" objection in the video were excerpts of Lynn's story entitled "Don't Believe Everything You Hear."  Fuzupf has repackaged the video without any reference to that story, which should remove Lynn's copyright objection. The "new" video can be seen below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWIMVTrbYaI

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Colleen Lynn - Seattle Animal Control Records

Colleen Lynn - Seattle Animal Control Records
What Really Happened on June 17, 2007

The Evolution of a Preventable Accident to the Myth of a Vicious Pit Bull Attack

Scene of the June 17, 2007, Incident

I.  Introduction 

For the first time anywhere on the web, you will be able to view, in their entirety, the Seattle Animal Control Records regarding the investigation of the June 17, 2007 bite incident involving Colleen Lynn. The link to the records will be at the end of this article. The addresses and phone numbers of the dog owner and dogwalker have been redacted, in an attempt to protect their privacy and prevent harassment. I am not sure these precautions will be effective. Ms. Lynn has had a copy of these records since 6/29/07 and has already made the photo of the dog involved public through her colleague Craven Desires here. As you can see, there has already been harassment of the dog owner. I have also redacted Ms. Lynn's information, but since she has moved to Austin, it is superfluous.

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