Merritt Clifton, Trustee for ROLDA US involvement with Dana Costin

Merritt Clifton – US Trustee/Secretary – started Romania League in Defense of Animals to support Dana Costin, fueled by his dreams and fantasies of him and Dana.

Merritt Clifton, now former editor of the influential Animal People Newspaper (fired from this position), and self-proclaimed “Watch Dog” of international animal charities, first met Dana Costin in 2004. In 2005 Merritt and Dana had a secret rendezvous at the beach in Southern California during a CHAMPS conference whilst Dana’s partner Rolando was in the hotel room suffering from a terminal illness.

Shortly thereafter Merritt and his wife divorced . Email evidence provides information that Merritt’s relationship with Dana Costin was the instigator for the ending of Clifton’s 15 year marriage.

In 2006, Merritt Clifton started the charity Romania League in Defense of Animals for Dana Costin as a 501(c)(3) charity in the USA, being fully aware of the lack of accountability of ROLDA to Romania Animal Rescue.

Merritt withheld receipts from Romania Animal Rescue for funds that were to be submitted to them for ROLDA in early 2006. Merritt has inappropriately used his position at Animal People Newspaper to solicit donors for ROLDA, such as Nanette, a $20,000+ donor solicited by Clifton for Costin, and also used his “position of authority” at international conferences to promote ROLDA and Dana Costin.

Merritt’s assessment of the 2 ROLDA shelters in 2009 is not credible, as he has a conflict of interest as the ROLDA Trustee.  Was Merritt aware that the Large Shelter is fully funded by ArcelorMittal, the multi-billion dollar steel company……

Merritt Clifton and Dana Costin – The tunnel

Merritt is so smitten

A wife’s rightful response

Merritt Clifton defending Dana’s actions

Merritt again defending Dana’s lack of accountability

Merritt using Animal People contacts to benefit Dana   – A direct conflict of interest. Animal People statement: “ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the
decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.”

Merritt again unethically solciting donors for ROLDA and the Dana and Rolando porn fantasy

Fake fantasy used to get donations

Dana admits fantasy untrue and has the audacity to state even registered organisations scam money and is wrong to take the money from the dog

Merritt Clifton, reporter for Animal People, no longer writes for Animal People news source.  He was apparently fired from this position in early 2014.   He is now writing articles in Animals24-7. His articles include The Dogs of Hope, where he praises “the ROLDA shelter was a safe, happy place…”; and Help Labus, Save The Dogs, & ROLDA demonstrate progress for Romanian animals in different ways, besides reporting that dogs choose to stay in the shelters instead of returning on their own volition to the streets, he admits to fantasizing about being a dog in the care of ROLDA.

……………………………………

MERRIT CLIFTON, DILLUSIONAL OR A LIAR?

 Do you see something wrong with this picture postcard?

In 1986 Romania was still under communist rule

In 1986 ROLDA did not exist

In 1986 Dana Costin was approx 7 years of age

https://wheredidmydonationgo.org/merrit-defends-dana-costin

more to come.....

Merrit Clifton & Pit Bull Fraud

ZOMBIESANDDOGS

Anyone searching the internet about dog bite statistics will eventually stumble upon Merritt Clifton. Editor and creator of the non-peer reviewed Animal 24-7, a supposed “go-to” collection of statistics for BSL advocates has released their “findings” of unsubstantiated pit bull attacks against animals.

Academic Fraud?

It’s no secret among the animal community how disgraced Merritt Clifton has become. In 2014, The Huffington Post published a blog post written by Douglas Cooper, blasting Clifton and labeling him justly as an academic fraud. Cooper successfully exposes Clifton’s fraudulent claim of having more than “hundred peer-reviewed publications” with experts from Cambridge University, University of Alberta and University of Wyoming shredding the little credibility that Clifton possibly could have had left.

Huffington Post isn’t the only article out there calling Clifton’s credibility into question, articles and blog posts can be found from 2010, pointing out the inconsistencies in Clifton’s alleged data and Clifton’s alleged mishandlings of donations.

Dog Bite Statistics

Dog bite statistics are not really statistics, and they do not give an accurate picture of dogs that bite (Wright, 1991, p. 299-314), yet somehow Clifton attempted to create his own statistics by guessing. Clifton himself admits that he has created his own “formula” on how he comes up with his numbers. According to Clifton, he assumes that with each dog attack, there is at least a few others that are not reported (Clifton, 2016) and because of this, he can safely multiply the actual numbers dog attacks by 3, 10 or 147 depending on the size of the community/city.

“ANIMALS 24-7 multiplies reported dog attacks on other animals in communities of under 10,000 people by a compensation factor of three; multiplies reported dog attacks on other animals in communities of 10,000 to 100,000 people by a compensation factor of 10; and multiplies reported dog attacks on other animals in communities of more than 100,000 by a compensation factor of 147 (Clifton, 2016)”.

According to Clifton’s own numbers, dog pit bull attacks against other animals have actually gone down for 2015, even though that is not what he states, but his numbers say something different. In 2013, he states that 424 dogs, 396 of them pit bulls are responsible for attacks. The pit bulls allegedly killed 92 dogs, injuring 167, allegedly killed 17 cats, injuring 5 and allegedly killed 289 hooved animals, injuring 22. In 2014, 409 dogs, 337 of them were “pit bulls”. Pit bulls allegedly killed 86 dogs, injuring 139, allegedly killed 26 cats, injuring 4, and allegedly killed 77 hooved animals and injuring 24. In 2015, Clifton alleges that there were 338 dogs, 296 of them pit bulls. He also alleges that pit bulls killed 101 dogs, injuring 86, killed 37 cats, injured 3 and killed 45 hooved animals, injuring 23 (Clifton, 2016).

According to Clifton, “The approximately 3.5 million pit bulls in the U.S. appear to have killed more than 24,000 other dogs in 2015, up from about 15,500 each in 2013 and 2014; nearly 13,000 cats; perhaps 9,000 hooved animals; and between 30,000 and 45,000 small mammals and poultry (Clifton, 2016).” Considering Clifton has never allowed anyone to review his statistics, people can only guess how he takes the ALLEGED MEDIA REPORTED numbers and breaks them down to multiply them by 10 or 147.

Pretty much, he pulls the alleged reported numbers, multiplies by whatever number he pulls out of his hat and calculates away.

Clearing the Smoke

Projected, approximately and mirrored are used throughout his newest blog post on Animal 24-7, even acknowledging that “a great deal must be projected from relatively little” which really means : making up numbers as Clifton see’s fit. The definition of reliable is consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted and attempting to use  alleged unreported dog attacks in an attempt to pad the numbers shows just how unreliable the fabricated data that Clifton manufactures actually is. There really is no question just how Clifton has become the reigning laughing stock of statisticians and it looks like it’s a title he won’t be losing anytime soon.

Find out More About Merritt Clifton….

Wright JC. Canine aggression toward people: bite scenarios and prevention. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract 1991;21:299–314

Huffington Post

Where Did my Donations Go?

Can Merritt Clifton and Animal People Magazine Be Trusted?

Merritt Clifton — when the numbers just don’t add up