Orrin's Fuzzy Math

Dear Orrin must have been absent the day they taught statistics in school. He consistently glimpses dog-related public health articles online and wrongly extrapolates information to "support" his maniacal hatred for 25-year NYC Parks successful off-leash hours policy.

Frequent readers will recall that Orrin tried to either pull some fuzzy math or his reading comprehension is slipping when last year he mischaracterized dog bite statistics.

Almost a year later Orrin's back with a NYT article that shows nationwide that hospital admission for dog bites has gone up over the past two decades. Of course, Orrin believes that this proves the insanity of the NYC Parks Off-leash Hours policy.

Dear Orrin must not have read in the article that dog bites in rural areas had 4 times as many emergency room visits as urban areas. And dog bites in rural areas had 3 times as many admissions as in urban areas. The last time we checked, NYC was considered to be an urban area.

I wonder how often Orrin mistakes his bustling Brooklyn nabe for an exurb of Peoria, or a sleepy little town in Maine. We all know New Yorkers are more friendly than some of those persnickety New Englanders in their small towns, and NYC statistics show that local dogs are also more friendly than their Country Mouse cousins.

Shall we review the facts? Like when in 2006, the 13 members of the NYC Health Board (doctors, epidemiologists, public health officials) looked at the statistic of dog bites in NYC and noticed a precipitous drop over the past few decades. Full story here. In fact, the vote to approve the Off-leash Hours Policy and to amend the "Leash Law" was unanimous (13-0) after the facts were considered--including the precipitous statistical drop in NYC dog bites concurrent to the period that the 25-year successful off-leash hours policy has been in effect.

Perhaps Orrin can go volunteer in a small little red school house in rural America to teach stats. Only be careful of those territorial dogs in small towns who don't get the socialization and exercise that the City cousins get in 89 parks in all five boroughs in the big city. The statistics outside the city are against you.

Orrin's a bit like how Jon Stewart recently characterized the GOP, he loves the "truth", but hates facts.