Clifton report

The Clifton Report is a report published by Animal People, Inc., an international animal welfare newspaper based on Whidbey Island, Washington. The reports are named after the author, Merritt Clifton, an investigative reporter and former editor of Animal People, currently editor of Animals 24-7 with his wife Beth (a former police officer, animal control officer, and verterinary technician) as social media editor and photographer.
The reports
The reports include:
# Watchdog Report on Animal Charities (published annually)
# Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada (updated monthly)
# Annual reports on animal shelter killing (since 1993)
1. Watchdog Report on Animal Charities
The Watchdog Report had its origins in a report titled Who Gets The Money? This report was originally published in April 1991 by Animals' Agenda news magazine and was based on filings. The report included data on fundraising, program spending, and administrative expenses, as well as salaries of the top officials of each charity.
Animal People magazine assumed publication of Who Gets the Money? in 1992, adding more organizations each subsequent year. The report also expanded financial coverage and in 1999 Animal People launched a separate handbook published each summer titled The Watchdog Report on Animal Charities.
The Watchdog Report averages 52 pages, covering from 150 to 165 charities per year. Approximately 40-50 noteworthy foreign charities are included each year. "The Watchdog Report" is no longer published.
2. Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada
In 1979 Merritt Clifton, then a reporter for the Sherbrooke Record in Sherbrooke, Quebec, began investigating a local exotic cat breeding & trafficking business. The aim was to discover whether exotic cats could be kept humanely & safely as pets, and as part of the study Clifton tracked fatal and disfiguring attacks by exotic pets, and their trafficking across the border. The log became breed-specific in September 1982.
Clifton's notes state the data was compiled using classified ads and media reports.
3. Annual reports on animal shelter killing
In the early 90's Clifton researched companion animal legislation for the American Humane Association. This research was originally undertaken as part of AHA efforts to reduce the numbers of animals killed in U.S. shelters.
The prevailing use of "euthanasia rates" and "save rates" was considered inherently misleading, as the figures were inconsistent due to shelter management practices. As a result, by the mid-90's Clifton was using more complex statistical models. Since 1996 the rate of shelter killing per 1,000 humans has become the comparative statistic most used by humane workers and animal control professionals to assess progress.

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