Websites like banpitbulls.org, dogsbite.org, and fatalpitbullattacks.com offer up horrifying statistics on pit bull maulings across North America.

The latter website points out that that last month, a six-year-old, Logan Bratz, become the 507th American to be killed by a pit bull in the United States.

Here in the Lower Mainland, a Burnaby staff report in 2013 also painted a grim picture of this much maligned breed.

According to this report, pit bulls accounted for only two percent of all dogs in Burnaby, but were responsible for 24.7 percent of reported dog bites.

The report noted that it was only possible to identify the breed in about half of all biting incidents. German shepherds ranked second with 14.6 percent of all reported bites.

More recently, however, an investigation by CKNW Radio has revealed that the highest number of biting incidents in the Lower Mainland involved German shepherds, not pit bulls.

The data was compiled with the help of 17 freedom-of-information requests.

Between September 2016 and last month, there were 103 bites by German shepherds, according to CKNW.

Pit bulls and pit bull crosses ranked second with 86. Labrador retrievers and Labrador crosses were third with 58, followed by 35 by Rottweilers and Rottweiler crosses.

Surrey council rejects breed-specific ban

Earlier this week, Surrey council voted to create four categories for dogs: normal, aggressive, vicious, and dangerous.

Annual licensing fees will be $43 for an "altered normal dog" and $500 for a "dangerous dog".

Surrey council decided against imposing a breed-specific ban, unlike Ontario and the City of Montreal, which have prohibited pit bulls.

"Under the old bylaw a dog would have to physically attack an individual before it could be deemed as dangerous," Surrey's manager of bylaws and licensing services, Jas Rehal, said in a news release. “The new Animal Responsibility Bylaw gives us the latitude to intervene when a dog is behaving aggressively and before a dog bite or attack occurs."

Those with unmuzzled dangerous dogs face fines of $1,000 This will enable officials to impose multiple penalties on repeat offenders.