In a New Yorker article, Malcolm Gladwell examines how municipalities deal with the problem of aggressive dogs. Interestingly, he draws on what we’ve learned about policing of humans (what New York City has done, for example, reduce its crime rate) to make the case that banning a specific breed is the wrong way to reduce the incidence of dog bite.

The article surveys the data about what breeds of dog have been involved in fatal dog bites, and concludes that the reason pitbulls have made the news so often in the past few years is that more people own them:

The kinds of dogs that kill people change over time, because the popularity of certain breeds changes over time. The one thing that doesn’t change is the total number of the people killed by dogs. When we have more problems with pit bulls, it’s not necessarily a sign that pit bulls are more dangerous than other dogs. It could just be a sign that pit bulls have become more numerous.

But who owns these dogs? Here we get to the real crux of the issue. The strongest predictor of viciousness in a dog has far less to do with the dog, and an awful lot to do with the owner:

In about a quarter of fatal dog-bite cases, the dog owners were previously involved in illegal fighting. The dogs that bite people are, in many cases, socially isolated because their owners are socially isolated, and they are vicious because they have owners who want a vicious dog. The junk-yard German shepherd’s which looks as if it would rip your throat out and the German-shepherd guide dog are the same breed. But they are not the same dog, because they have owners with different intentions.

When I was doing research for my novel Loose Dogs — the protagonist is an animal control officer who breaks up a dog fighting ring — I was given a tour of the kennels that Rochester Animal Services use to hold stray dogs they’ve picked up. It’s not unusual for over half of these dogs to be pit bulls, or pit bull mixes.

You know what else? If these dogs — the pit bulls — aren’t claimed, they are put down — the city won’t offer a pit bull for adoption. I can’t say as I blame them. They don’t want to be in the business of offering the type of dog that attracts the wrong type of owner.

But it still breaks my heart.