Reader Morgana found a BSL advocate and got a response about the killing of Lennox. Although it’s not the public celebration I had anticipated, it’s at least public, now. And it’s got all the lies anyone could ever have imagined:
From: “anmlpepl@whidbey.com” <anmlpepl@whidbey.com>
To: Morgana
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: [New post] BSL Advocates Seem to Have Disappeared After Lennox’s Killing, Check Under Local Rocks
In point of fact, Lennox was impounded after neighbors complained about his dangerous behavior.He was not returned with a warning because he was a pit bull, who never should have been brought to Northern Ireland in the first place. Returning animals of any kind to scofflaws is never good policy.
Lennox subsequently repeatedly flunked behavioral screening.
And that is why he was killed.
— Merritt Clifton
Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236
“Repeatedly flunked behavioral screening”. Um…no. Sorry, but nothing in reality supports that statement. Although I suspect that reality is not this person’s strong point.
Yes, historically reality has not been one of Clifton’s strong points.He has no shortage of opinions though.
Known as Merritt ‘full of it’ Clifton, along with his odious friends Colleen Lynn and Kory Nelson and other twisted propagandists.
At least this guy admits he was “killed” instead of “euthanized”.
There IS a video of Lennox being tested and IT shows just the opposite. Lennox PASSED a number of tests. Also Lennox was a bulldog NOT a “pit bull” but he was medium sized and had short hair.
Silly us – let’s not let the facts get in the way here!
*(sarcasm)
I no longer read anything that Mr. Clifton and his sidekicks write. It’s a waste of my time.
I’m with Ona. Mr. Clifton is The Dog Breed Inventor to me.
That doesn’t sound like an animal person to me.
Total and utter bull shit, you want to know about Lennox ask me I have supported him since a week after he was taken.
Sounds to me much like the sort of people who patrol their neighborhoods looking for infractions against HOA rules. I’m also impressed by how many distortions & untruths can be contained in one short email – that takes talent, it does.
One of the things that frightens me about BSL – which has been threatened where I live, off and on, although I very much doubt it will ever happen – is that it does hand power to people like this. No neighborhood needs dangerous dogs, but neither do they need tinpot dictators armed with ignorance and yardsticks deciding whose dog lives or dies.
” … people who patrol their neighborhoods looking for infractions … ” Sounds like another story in the news recently.
Merritt Clifton is the propagator of much of the bogus bite statistics. He’s a long term pit bull hater of the PETA variety.
My experiences with him in the past, in direct communication, have been less than productive and have left me perplexed on more than one occasion. Although Nathan quotes him in Redemption, I don’t put much stock in his words used other places.
My experience as welll. I once wrote him politely questioning a statement of his, and he oh-so-professionally responded with, “ask me if I give a crap.”
I spent many hours debating with Merritt about this issue back in the 90s. He is, in my opinion, a pompous twit and wouldn’t waste another minute on him. The only reason I’m responding to you all is to say we have more important things to do!
many dogs have been killed because of Clifton he is a “rabid” pit bull hater.. just google Clifton and “pit bulls”.. I agree .. he is a waste of humanity
I just want to say that, knowing he was a rabid pit bull hater, I sent him the email asking how AP was going to handle the Lennox case, hoping against hope that he might have become more humane these days, you know, people can change over time, that sort of glass half full kinda thing. But, as the eternal optimist, I was defeated. I did write back and ask for more info, and clarification on just exactly why he feels the way he does, excluding the idiotic and of course, skewed statistics etc.
Clifton is the man who fabricated an entire (and oft quoted) “study” on “pit bull” attacks by using breed identification as published in newspapers as accurate and definitive.
I am not a hateful person but it’s safe to say I wouldn’t pee on him if he was on fire.
I would hope you would at least call animal control. If they weren’t too busy chasing down all the pit bulls, hopefully they would come douse the flames.
I think the phrase we used in my camo days was, “would not walk across the street to piss in his ear if his brain was on fire.” Yes, your tax dollars at work.
He once told me that Snakey, our beloved GSD mix who had passed,was not a coydog because that was not genetically possible. I think I had said something to the effect that I had a soft spot for the misunderstood kids due to Snakey’s past. I’m no biologist but am pretty sure there is such a thing as a coydog and even if there is not, I really didn’t need some guy I’ve never met speaking about someone I love very much in such dismissive and arrogant terms as if he has no filter. He went on to share some choice observations about an attorney I know in Oakland who runs a little shop called the NKAC but I’ve pretty much kept those comments to myself all these years. They were hateful and just made me wonder how unhappy this guy really is. I mean, maybe he should get a therapy dog. I hear pit bull type dogs excel at that.
To inflict Clifton on the undeserving Pit Bulldog, however unsurpassed a service dog they make, would be a horrible act of inhumanity. Frankly, he deosn’t deserve to have fleas, never mind a fine dog to feed them on!
Yeah, I have several different versions of his “study” — but I have one from 2006, and another from 2009 in which the number of attacks attributed to pit bulls grew by a larger number between the 2 studies than the total number of attacks overall — by like, hundreds. Clifton attributed this to “reclassification” of historical bites. I can’t imagine what information could come out about a 10 year old bite incident that would reclassify the dog breed, but that was his explanation.
And just think, Merritt is one of the more literate of those BSL advocates…
While my advocacy experience is with wolf/dog crosses, i just want to point out that crosses can “throw back” to foundation genes which makes it impossible to accurately identify a cross bred canine’s ancestry by physical characteristics. Poorly informed but arrogant animal control personnel will try to say differently but I have seen canines that I know to be wolf/dog crosses that look like a hound and I have seen canines that look like pure wolf that have no wolf linage at all but are cross bred out of nordic species. I am sure this happens with all breeds and especially Pit Bulls since they have recently mixed ancestry. (I should say here that I do not advocate crossing dogs and wolves but against breed specific banning.)
Wow. What a blunt way of speaking! lol
But I agree that we all know that what he says is BS.