Death Mobile

(Merritt Clifton doesn't work in an animal shelter, nor is he a statistician; besides he has no background in progressive humane sheltering. In the opinion of many in the Animals Rights movement, Clifton has remained true to the status quo of shelter management developed decades ago; aka "catch and kill." Merritt Clifton writes and edits a newsletter about general animal welfare.)

Forwarded from Edward Muzika to ADL-LA:
(The below is taken from a much longer post by Muzika; ADL-LA kept the pertinent information regarding Ed Boks from his longer post and reposted it below. ADL-LA notes are in parenthesis:)

Ed Boks relies on the statistics of Merritt Clifton, publisher of Animal People to prove he is doing a great job.

Using Merritt Clifton's (completely made up) criteria, NYC, which kills as many animals as LA, is basically no kill because its population is more than double LA’s. Divide 17,000 killed in LA with a 4 million population, compared to 17,000 killed in NYC with a population of 9 million, means NYC kills just as many animals (about 17,000), but less than ½ of LA’s per thousand kill rate. Follow?

(This is the number of animals Boks claims he killed in 2007; however there is no confirmation that this number is based on fact and the majority of LAAS employees who have signed a no confidence petition against Ed Boks claim the death rate is even higher!)

Ed Boks uses Merritt’s ranking of LAAS’ performance of 4.3 killed per thousand about 17,000 in 2007, which gives a performance about 3 times better than the national average of 12.5 animals killed per thousand population.

This measure is ridiculous. For example, if LAAS impounded 17,000 animals in 2007 and killed all of them, it would have a live save rate of 0, a kill rate of 100%, and still have Merritt’s identical kill rate of 4.3 animals per 1,000, which is still 3 times better than the national average.

Therefore, Clifton’s methods and measures are ridiculous. Boks uses them and Jim Bickhart, Robin Kramer, Jimmy Blackman and the Mayor neither understand or care. They accept Boks’ proof and give him an award for being the “lowest no-kill city in the country” according to Villarraigosa.

Merritt Clifton makes these kinds of errors throughout all of his calculations about animal populations, whether pets in the nation’s pounds, or dogs in Calcutta. He does not grasp the concept of city/county/regional boundaries and lumps them all together and extracts whatever conclusions he wants.

I emailed Clifton, questioning his methodology. I questioned his methodology and numbers; I did not offer any alternative methods or opinions. I expected, like all scientists and statisticians, he’d defend his methods by providing numbers and the theories he operated under. Here is Merritt’s response:

“I have no interest in your opinions.

“They are not supported by a significant record of accomplishment.

“That's the bottom line. What I do works, & has worked in

many situations, involving many different species, around the

world.” Merritt Clifton, Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

A friend of mine emailed me:

“What is it that Clifton does that works?”

My response was, “He gets a lot of people to accept his numbers because neither he nor they have any idea of what they are talking about.”

I have challenged Clifton again on his methodology. When I get a response, I’ll post it. Don't hold your breath though.

In the meantime, just know that nothing that comes out of Merritt’s or Boks’ mouth has any credibility whatsoever.

Clifton knows I was a population demographer and statistician in both the Cleveland and Detroit areas for several years, and am very familiar with population studies and methods.