Well, she’s a bad owner for not taking into account the specific needs of her apex predator; like a lot of physical activity and access to a fresh Weyland-Yutani crew on a regular basis.
That’s how I see pitbull owners
I’m not an owner I’m but someone with a lot of friends that own pitbulls. Pitbulls aren’t some magically special, dangerous breed that is prone to random acts of violence.
Any dog can snap. So why do we see proportionally more news stories about it happening with a pitbull…?
EDIT 2: So. Many. Downvotes. But not a single comment refuting the statistics with facts and evidence… You’re not flat-earthers, right? So don’t act like them. Use your brain, not your feeeelings! I love dogs. All dogs. And yeah, if my dog was a Pittie, I would be defensive too, but I would also be honest that people need to take extra precautions…
EDIT: You’re literally arguing against facts.
Because their stereotype can attract shitty owners who want a badass dog but can’t be assed to train or care for them.
Or they literally abuse, possibly even with dogfights, and abandon them.
Because most people can’t identify one and use it for any mid size dog.
See: Rottweiler, doberman in previous years.
Edit: that includes cops. Same thing applies to police reports. Guess what insurance adjustors use as part of determining insurance rates?
That isn’t the slam dunk of info you think it is.
‘Pit bull’ doesn’t even have a real definition. It’s sometimes considered a breed or sometimes a family or class and may include more than a dozen different breeds and their mutts depending on who is counting.
Both the CDC and AVMA say there is no sufficiently reliable source for breed data related to dog attacks.
DogsBite.org literally states their objective is convincing people pit bulls are dangerous and claims they can reliably ID a breed from a photograph.
So go pound sand with that ‘facts’ horseshit.
Even if we wanted to ignore those problems and take it seriously as a source, it completely neglects the only relevant question of the proportion of dogs within a breed that attack. Without reliable information about the sizes of the populations of included breeds, the chart is useless.
Real research on this exists.
CONCLUSION Maulings by dogs can cause terrible injuries47 and death—and it is natural for those dealing with the victims to seek to address the immediate causes. However as Duffy et al (2008) wrote of their survey based data: “The substantial within-breed variation…suggests that it is inappropriate to make predictions about a given dog’s propensity for aggressive behavior based solely on its breed.” While breed is a factor, the impact of other factors relating to the individual animal (such as training method, sex and neutering status), the target (e.g. owner versus stranger), and the context in which the dog is kept (e.g. urban versus rural) prevent breed from having significant predictive value in its own right. Also the nature of a breed has been shown to vary across time, geographically, and according to breed subtypes such as those raised for conformation showing versus field trials.37 Given that breed is a poor sole predictor of aggressiveness and pit bull-type dogs are not implicated in controlled studies it is difficult to support the targeting of this breed as a basis for dog bite prevention. If breeds are to be targeted a cluster of large breeds would be implicated including the German shepherd and shepherd crosses and other breeds that vary by location.
Jesus that’s sad. Everyone holding your hand trying to walk you down this path of actually learning about how research and science is performed and how to look into a source and you still just decide to spew nonsense.
I hope you learn to walk on your own one day. Don’t stop reading and looking into sources just because you found something you like. All of your shit is crappy research that the authors conclude is bad data. It’s why the precious dogbite.org focuses on a 1970-99 cdc study, a media review study for statistics slaps forehead.
It’s obvious this meme brought in a lot of people who love to classify “undesirables” and a few willing to put up with the misinformation to actually try and teach someone how to do proper research without just “believing” from a few misquoted or misguided articles. I saw at least one person doing the work and realized your links and claims were bullshit so something was accomplished I suppose.
So. Many. Downvotes. But not a single comment refuting the statistics with facts and evidence…
Yes, because it’s clear as day that you’re a closeted racist. The argument that you’re trying to push, the dishonest appeal to statistics, even the language that you use – you’re trying to normalise the idea that some “breeds” are more dangerous than others, but you’re too scared to say that even though you’re talking about dogs, what you actually have in mind are humans. Go on, don’t be shy, show us your twitter alt where instead of fatal attack statistic you post crime rate graphs and pretend that it’s evidence that black people don’t serve rights.
Do any of them meet the classic stereotype when it comes to like licking infants’ faces n stuff? No offense to your buddies of course!
The trope would be something like:
MY loving family pet (ADescendantOfWolvesWithABiteForceOf230PoundsPerSquareInch) would never hurt a fly
(Of course it’s just a different risk tolerance like we all have with all kinds of things)
None of them have kids, but I’ve spent a lot of time around my friends and their dogs. They are just dogs. Many of them are extremely affectionate. When I was a kid my family had a German Shepherd with showdog lineage and my mother had a lifetime of experience of owning and training dogs. Our shepherd exhibited substantially more aggression than any of my friends’ pitbulls.
Yes, big, strong dogs can do more harm than smaller dogs and pitbulls can be big and strong. That does make them capable of being more dangerous if something goes wrong. I can’t argue with that. However, the mentality is that pitbulls are inherently violent or behave violently by natur is what I call bullshit on.
Pitbulls are regarded as dangerous and vicious. They are also abused and subjected to fighting by their owners because that is their reputation. It’s so fucked up. Then, bad owners want a scary dog, treat it poorly, don’t train it and when it acts like any mistreated, traumatized animal would the world declares it inherently violent. There is such a thing as a self fulfilling prophecy.
Hell, one friend has a pit mix that is like < 30 lbs, full grown. I’ve never seen it do anything any other dog wouldn’t do. Still, he’s extremely careful with it because of the prejudice people have against the breed. Once I was hiking with him and another man with his own dog crossed our path. My friend stepped off the path and kept the dog seated and on a short leash in an attempt to reassure the guy well before he got close to us. The guy immediately asked my friend if his dog was a pitbull and berated him as he passed, furious that my friend would be irresponsible enough to own a pitbull.
Many of the people in this thread remind me of that man.
Another story. One of my coworkers paid thousands of dollars in vet bills for their neighbor in order to stop them from trying to get my coworkers dog put down (and it wasn’t one of those “scary” breeds). All because the neighbors small, aggressive dog charged the bigger dog. In its attempt to get away, the bigger dog scrambled and accidentally stepped on the smaller dog and injured it. A poorly trained, off leash small dog almost cost a perfectly average dog it’s life because the owners didn’t bother to restrain it… but the bad owners made out in the end.
One last story. I was hiking with the tankiest, strongest pitbull of all the ones I know. This guy doesn’t want anything to do with other dogs. It’s not aggressive - it’s frightened. We came across another hiker with their dog… the hiker said his dog was friendly and my friend immediately stated that their dog wasn’t interested in making new friends. The hiker ignored the statement and let go of their dog’s leash, letting the dog rush the pitbull tank barking and running circles around it. The pitbull panicked and couldn’t get away and my friend had to try to keep the other dog away from the pitbull for the pitbull’s sake. No harm was done beyond a poor, stressed out pitbull and a pissed off friend.
Should pitbulls exist? I’m indifferent, especially when it comes to purebreds. That doesn’t mean that I want them exterminated or left to rot in shelters. Just let dogs be dogs. Try to make sure puppies come out healthy and worry less about whether they look the way you want them to.
Yes they are. Pitbulls are unpredictable, reactive, and strong compared to other breeds. They were selectively bred for those traits. They have to be muzzled and registered in my neighborhood.
Ah yes, I see. You have made assertions that align with the typical narrative and stereotype around a breed of dogs, then demonstrated the assertion’s validity by stating it is a belief held in your neighborhood.
I have completely changed my mind and will now ignore all of my own experiences and knowledge on the topic because a random person asserted a stereotype and stated that people believe and act on a stereotype. I guess that’s it. Debate over.
Even if they were psychologically identical to every other dog, they still have bodies that were specifically engineered to fuck up human beings. When a lap dog freaks out, you get a boo boo. If that lap dog had a pit bull’s body, you might be dead.
Sorry you feel personally attacked when someone says pitbulls are dangerous.
Even if they were psychologically identical to every other dog
That’s literally my point - they basically are. I won’t argue that pitbulls are more capable of harming someone due to their physical characteristics. That’s just physics.
Horses are also large, powerful animals and they cause at least a few deaths every year by trampling or kicking humans when provoked, spooked, startled, or whatever - I’m not really a horse person. Obviously, large powerful animals can absolutely cause more damage than lap-sized animals. That doesn’t mean they are the equivalent of a monster from a horror movie that could rip someone to shreds at any moment with no provocation. Not does it mean that anyone who owns one is an irresponsible, naive threat to society.
If you are a responsible owner, the dog or horse isn’t an unreasonable danger.
Sorry you feel personally attacked when someone says pitbulls are dangerous.
I don’t feel personally attacked, but many other people feel personally attacked when someone questions their opinion on pitbulls. I just feel bad for the animals.
If they aren’t special why do large pet groomers like Petsmart ban them? Seems like a lot of lost money.
If we did domesticate xenomorphs, we’d have to make artificial “hosts” for the facehuggers to implant an egg in. Since the xenos apparently incorporate some DNA from the host, we could even make custom ones!
Alien 3 already has one that came from an ox (or dog depending on which cut of the movie) so at least it doesn’t need to be from people. Honestly aside from that they don’t really get into the interesting DNA combination stuff too much. Could be cool for one that’s like a breed of dog all specialized and whatnot.
Now I’m curious if a Chihuahua alien would be more aggressive than a regular Chihuahua or not
Hopefully we could just grow a fleshy blob that serves to incubate them rather than making living creatures go through that!
I’d like to see a cat xenomorph. It will knock things off of high places, hide in boxes, and ignore you when you call it.
My headcanon (in which only the first two Alien movies count) is that Xenomorph queens normally aren’t much bigger than regular Xenomorphs, but the one in Aliens was huge because she incubated inside the Space Jockey.
It’s only legal to make an attack dog if the cops own the dog.
I hope I’m understanding your angle of approach on this.
Crowd control dogs are highly trained and don’t go out on a rampage unless commanded to. It’s their handler that triggers the response. Otherwise, the dogs do not exhibit arbitrary aggression behaviour. Even military trained dogs must not demonstrate aggressive tendencies; if so, they would be a danger for their handlers and other allies. The attack behaviour is developed and triggered under specific conditions and commands.
You can train a dog in the same manner. Dog trainning is an open knowledge base and I personally think everyone should work with their dogs in order to give them the best outcome possible for their lives. It’s the closest symbiotic relation our species has with another, in my understanding. And it’s fun.
From this point forward, I’m going to talk from personal experience.
I was lucky enough to have the perfect dog in a very bad point of my life. That dog forced me out of my house, to go on long walks and think on something other than my misery. I never taught a single thing to him beyond sitting and laying down on request. I never taught him to wait for me, keep an eye out when I was foraging for something or being protective of my family.
This was dog that, still not fully grown, took on two other, bigger than him, to protect my infant child, out of his own vollition. And that when called by name returned. This would be the same dog, that years later, would stare down another> , known for being unreliable around children, into submission, a dog the person responsible for feared and kept chained. I had a lord by my side and I was lucky for it.
When that dog died in my arms, of old age, I lost a brother and a son. I’m crying as I write these words.
Today I have two dogs of the same breed but I have severely failed them, by allowing another person to force me to take them to under the wrong conditions: separatly and too early. This created a vicious beggining for their lives, making them fearful and wary of everyone, which made them prone to be aggressive out of fear and aggressive towards each other. Things have been better with some measures but I feel as I failed them.
Most dogs show aggressive behaviour out of improper care, be it by negligence or abuse.
I’ve been studying and working, actively, to be a dog trainer. I have scars, from my own dogs, for mistakes I’ve done. I hold no anger against them. It was my mistakes that made them react to the world as they do today. I’ve helped other people not make the same mistakes with their dogs; it’s my small contribution for a better world, I hope.
I’ve only met two dogs beyond any reach. One diminished from birth causes, making the dog effectively uncapable of acquiring any modulation to his behaviour; besides eating, nothing mattered and he would attack anything he viewed as potentially edible and attack to keep others from food, even after being fed to satisfaction. The other had been severely abused, being given alcohol as a pup, which stunted his development, both physical and mental. The dog would attack out of nothing, anything, and would not calm down until passing out of exhaustion. I believe he suffered from allucinations. Both had to be put to rest, as their lives would never be happy.
So, you can have a dog prepared to defend you. You just need to prove you can take care of the dog properly.
That’s a very touching story, and something tells me you had German Shepherd dogs. I agree they can be some of the most loving and loyal companions, but you should know their breed has a huge variety of personality traits, and some of them are just naturally skittish, aggressive, or untrainable. If they were abused, it’s basically impossible to undo that trauma. I’ve had a lot of experience working with many breeds, and you shouldn’t blame yourself for their problems.
Azores Cattle Dogs
The girls I currently care for were taken, one too early from her mother, at six weeks old, and because I was to overprotective of her, as there was a declaration of an infecto-contagious disease, fatal for puppies, and for which she could not be vaccinated before being six months old, in the least, she lost that very important early socialization window and became a very stressed and fearful dog. Even today, some gestures like rubbing her belly can trigger a growling reaction. She is lovely, otherwise and will bark and lunge but will gladly run off at first chance.
The other one, was the last one leaving her mother, at 12 weeks, but she was very underweight and skittish when coming home. Even today she stresses over food very easily. I risk she was poorly fed and had to fight for every piece she managed to get. She is very territorial and often is the first aggressor when they fight as she does not trust her sister around the family when she starts barking or fretting over anything.
Things have been easier later, as we introduced somw grounds rules to the family, especially my kids, that easily get into panic mode and start screaming for anything, which is a very clear trigger for them. If the kids are scared, there is a potential danger. When they don’t find it, they turn on each other and these are vicious dogs when engaged in a fight.
My male would enter a full kill-or-be-killed attitude when any threat presented itself. I never had any problems with him because we worked very well as a unit and I was always ready to take the first step to send away another dog before things got out of control. But this breed has gladiator spirit: outnumbered, out muscled, they fight to the death, if need be.
Don’t know much about this, but some experts have this to say on Pitbulls: https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pets/are-pit-bulls-dangerous-experts-set-the-record-straight-on-these-lovable-dogs/ar-AA1nG7F5
Out of curiosity, I tried looking up info on the attack/fatality rate of pitbulls outside of the USA (assuming Pitbulls are dangerous because the culture of the USA views them as such and this they are raised to be) but couldn’t find much.
The only one I found quickly was that they gave a high incidence of attacks in Japan as well, but the owners tend to be Yakuza or other gang members, so yeaaahhh…
People calling for the culling of all pit bulls would be hypocritical if they don’t also call for the culling of all German Shepherds. It’s a difference in attack rate of 21% for pit bulls and 18% for German shepherds so pretty close in “danger” (https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/dog-attack-statistics-breed/)
I doubt they would though as I believe most just have a bias against pitties.
German shepherds shouldn’t be bred at all. They have genetic defects that make them suspect to certain illnesses, such as hip defects. Don’t buy them. They will suffer and you will have an expensive vet bill.
Same exact thing can be said for golden retrievers and labradors. Honestly, most bred for purpose/ pure bred dogs.
Generations of inbreeding will do that to most mammals.
One of the healthiest dogs you can own is a mutt—ancillary (and anecdotal), but I found my cat in a dumpster as a kitten. She’ll be 10 in April and is still as feisty as when I found her.
It’s kinda shocking to see pictures of pre-1980 German Shepards next to modern ones. What the hell happened to their hips?
Legal measures against pitbulls often are rooted in redline type bills to continue to create laws that punish particular races or ethnicities.
Pit Bulls were and are often used for underground dog fights, and thus became associated with gangs and inner-city crime. That’s a ridiculously small portion of pit bull owners, but laws about pit bulls give one more tool for cops to over-police black and hispanic neighborhoods in particular.
I don’t really have an opinion on pit bulls, I’ve owned dogs, wolves and many animals and I do believe different breeds have different personalities and genetic influences, it would be ridiculous to deny it because WE MADE THEM THIS WAY, so yes, pitties and german shepherds and many others can easily be raised wrong and come out dangerous compared to say, golden retrievers or other “gentle” breeds that are going to be a lot more passive even when raised wrong. These are preconditions, they are influences. But the problem is with lack of education about how to raise animals, puppy mills and overbreeding, poor training, and the handful of irresponsible and abusive owners who fuck up everything for the rest of us.
I hate it here.
edit: not sorry at all if reasonable and nuanced facts make you angry for some reason. That’s a skill issue. Learn more. Go outside, meet people, make some friends. This is an oddly triggering issue to some people, you need to learn to breath and think. I don’t care how sweet your dog is or if you got bit once, if you have deeply emotional opinions on this in either direction, congratulations, you’re being manipulated.
Shitty people raise shitty dogs. Other shitty people see this and want a dog that “looks badass” and proceed to raise more shitty dogs. Of course, nobody will step forward and tell you that they raised a shitty dog, so you really can’t properly study this in a large group experiment.
I have had pitties for years
Left to their own devices pitties are harmless. In a loving and caring home, they are some of the most supporting docile animals I’ve ever been around. Even rescue pitties who have had horrible lives usually end up as proper babysitters without any substantial correction.
That said, a 50lb PB can hold on to a rope, be lifted off the ground and swung in circles without even breaking a sweat. Bite strength and passive muscle structure on those dogs are AMAZING. So if someone does make a PB decide they need to eat someone, they’re dangerous AF. But you really have to work hard to make them that way.
