dog attack
Deaths due to dog eclipse previous records.

Deaths by pit bull might; it's all in how you count them.

Dogs caused the deaths of a record 62 Americans and three Canadians in 2022, the fortieth consecutive year that ANIMALS 24-7 has logged fatal and disfiguring dog attacks occurring throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. and Canadian totals combined come to 65, preliminary data indicates.

The U.S. toll eclipsed the previous record, 56 deaths in 2017, by six.

The previous record toll for the U.S. and Canada combined, also reached in 2017, was 57, eclipsed by eight.

Dogs who killed 12 remain unidentified

Pit bulls identified as such accounted for 40 of the U.S. dog attack deaths in 2022, along with one Canadian. The U.S. pit bull toll was one fewer than the record 2021 U.S. pit bull-inflicted death count, but the dogs who killed 12 U.S. victims in 2022 have yet to be identified.

Pit bulls are believed to have been involved in at least 10 of those attacks, most of which were unwitnessed.

Four 2022 fatalities were inflicted by German shepherds, three by Rottweilers, and one each by Cane Corso, Dogo Argentino, Dogue de Bordeaux, and by husky.

Cane Corso, Dogo Argentino, Dogue du Bordeaux all are essentially pit bull variants.

Cane Corso or pit bull?

Cane Corso enthusiasts have vigorously insisted that Pam Robb, 71, killed on February 17, 2022 at the 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida shelter in Oakland Park, Florida, should be counted as a pit bull victim. Pit bull enthusiasts have equally vigorously insisted that Robb should be counted as a Cane Corso victim.

While ANIMALS 24-7 has logged Robb as a Cane Corso victim, as was initially claimed by 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida, Gladys the killer dog was later said by 100+ Abandoned Dogs of Everglades Florida to be a pit bull.

If so, the 2022 U.S. pit bull toll matched the 2021 record.

(Read more here)