Allow me to draw your attention to a strong story in today's News-Herald, Dog bite statistics don't tell whole story.

In it, court reporter Tracey Read updates us the story of an 8-year-old Willowick girl who was bit in the face by a pit bull Sept. 18 (details here), but also offers words to the wise about breed profiling.

Excerpt:

U.S. Humane Society statistics show that pit bulls, rottweilers, German shepherds, husky types and Malamutes are the breeds most likely to bite.

But those statistics don't tell the whole story, said Frank Kellogg, director of the Lake County Health District's environmental health programs.

"If we get a report that says 50 German shepherds bit somebody, that doesn't really mean anything if you don't know how many German shepherds there are in the population," Kellogg said.

"Another problem is that we get dog bite reports from all kinds of places — victims, hospitals, police — and the people reporting it don't necessarily know the correct breed of dog. What's a bull terrier to somebody is a Boston terrier to somebody else."

I can't say this stuff enough (examples here and here). Any breed can be man's best friend - yes, guys, even the small ones.

-- Sandra M. Klepach, SKlepach@News-Herald.com