Remember that woman in rural LA county who was killed by a pack of dogs last week?

[Nine]

202. You're claiming that pit bulls "outnumber all the other dogs by 2-100x"?

You seem to be saying that of course the most dog bite related fatalities are attributable to pit bulls because the four breeds that make up the pit bull category constitute the vast majority of the dog population - by a factor between two and a hundred? Am I understanding you? The Clifton report appears to estimate pit bulls as comprising 4.4% of the dog population. I take it you dispute this number and have a different number to provide?

I would agree that dog bite related fatalities per breed is not the most meaningful statistic since some breeds are more populous than others. However, when a breed (or category of four breeds - it doesn't really matter) makes up 4.4% of dogs and is responsible for 45% of the deaths (233) and 57% of the maimings (1,268) over a thirty year period, that's difficult to "hand wave" away.

The text you quoted was not actually a disclaimer but a preemptive counter-argument for the very argument you are making. It's an abridgment from the Clifton Report, and you can find a fuller version of it in the last two paragraphs on the first page of the report along with another preemptive argument addressing claims that these dogs are simply being misidentified by the media. (Short answer: media coverage is typically multi-sourced).