Tom Skeldon by the Numbers

And the numbers are in. Lucas County Dog Warden, Tom Skeldon, has made quite a name for himself with the ever-increasing number of pit bulls his department has "processed." If you talk to him he'll tell you (some could even consider it bragging) how the number of pit bulls seized or surrendered under his watch as Lucas County Dog Warden has grown exponentially in the past ten years.

Listed below are the number of pit bulls taken in by the Lucas County Dog Warden by year.
1997 - 276
1998 - 359
1999 - 406
2000 - 487
2001 - 482
2002 - 551
2003 - 690
2004 - 857
2005 - 900
2006 - 998
2007 - 1354

According to Tom Skeldon, around 12% of the animals are returned to their owners, the rest are euthanized. Another stat...in 1997 when 276 pit bulls were seized or surrendered, that number only made up 5% of the total number of dogs seized or surrendered in Lucas County. In 2007 pit bulls made up 34% of the dogs seized or surrendered. With Skeldon's percentage estimate, 1191 pit bulls alone were euthanized in 2007.

Below you can find two segments that make up today's interview with Mr. Skeldon. The first segment deals mainly with the story I worked on with Lissa Guyton about a woman who was attacked while trying to break up a fight between two dogs in her home.

In the second segment below, Mr. Skeldon gets more into his feeling towards the breed (actually the pit bull is not a specific breed but rather a group of breeds of dogs that fall into the Molosser family of dogs).





As always, thanks for watching!
-Billau