the battle over statsitics

in case you haven't been following the messy bidness of dog bite statistics, some pussy cat journalist*, B12 starved animal activist and fact cooker in reno, neveda has been attacking the dog attack data collected over the last ~30 years by Animal People. it sparked a response from blogger SRUV, then dogsbite.org and finally Merritt Clifton himself. it's a good read. click HERE.

*warning this is not for intellectual featherweights, ie pit nutters


*pussy cat journalism The failure of journalists to ask critical questions or raise important issues in their reporting; usually of controversial subject matter. It describes the path of least resistance to get a story. As a result, the story is usually one sided or one dimensional and many important questions are not raised or dealt with in the reporting.

The phrase is borrowed from observing the behavior of domesticated cats: It is used to describe how a cat may become accustomed to food from a bag or can, and thereby, its walking circle becomes a smaller path. For example, from the place where it lounges to the place where the food is set out in a dish. This cat no longer looks under bushes and hides in a tree. It is satisfied with the little effort, and enjoys snoozing whenever it can.

When comparing a native cat, their walking-about path is much larger. They might not return home for days. They enjoy spending time outdoors and scrutinizing things longer.

Whereas a domesticated cat knows where to look for food, the native or natural cat might spend more time looking and actually forgo eating, to stay in place, waiting for the right bird to come along.