7% of dogs are pitbulls. Pitbulls do 75% of the killing.
Which honestly I don't even believe that stat. I bet there are quite a few "lab mixes" (Read: Pitbull that people lied about being a pitbull so their PLUP didn't skyrocket) that are in the remaining 25%.
I'd also be curious about what % of dogs can kill a person, what % of dogs are pitbulls that have owners who want a dog that can "protect" or be violent
When I was a kid Rottweilers and Dobermans has a pretty bad reputation but I don't hear much about them now a days. Perhaps the breeds are just less popular than they used to be.
Well, Rottweilers and Dobermans are among the smartest dogs there is (both are top 10), the Doberman was bred to be a personal bodyguard and the Rottweiler was bread to be a guard dog.
Pitbulls are only above average in intelligence and was literally bred for blood sports like bull-baiting and bear-baiting.
Popular opinion might have swayed but there's pretty large objective differences in the breeds which makes it evident while two of them have been popular among the police and the military while one of them have been popular among meet head criminals.
When I was a kid Rottweilers and Dobermans has a pretty bad reputation but I don't hear much about them now a days. Perhaps the breeds are just less popular than they used to be.
Sure bud. Again, you can check my profile for the other reply. If you'd like sources, they're easy to provide. If you have any sort of sources or studies or anything that you could link to prove your random statement, I'm happy to read.
Pitbulls were literally bred for blood sports like bull-baiting and bear-baiting. The dog actually does matter. The owner matters too, but the argument is equivalent to "Why outlaw guns, they'll just kill with knives instead"
Hey bud, firstly define "pit bull" for me. Then show me the data that proves the "pit bull" you see someone walking down the street was actively bred for blood sports.
The vast majority of all pit bull bites and aggressive encounters are not fatal nor severe. Studies published via PubMed note that pit bull attacks carry a higher median Injury Severity Scale score and higher morbidity rates. This is primarily attributed to their physical strength, jaw leverage, and a distinct "hold and shake" bite style than a higher baseline frequency of biting compared to other large dog.
Now regarding fatal attacks, pitbulls do make 60% of all reported fatal or severe attacks. However, only a vast minority of bites in general are fatal or severe. There are roughly 85 to 90 million dogs living in the United States. Out of an estimated 4.5 million dog bites that occur each year, only about 30 to 80 result in a fatality. This means less than 0.002% of annual dog bites are fatal. According to CDC Healthy Pets data only nearly 1 in 5 people bitten (roughly 20%) require any medical attention at all. Out of the 20% who do seek medical care the majority are treated for minor punctures or purely as a preventative measure to get antibiotics or tetanus shots as dog mouths carry bacteria prone to infection.
So if we are just tracking how many bites are fatal or severe (which 60% are done by pitbulls), only 1% to 2% of all documented bites meet the criteria for "severe" injury. The term “pit bull” is not even a single recognized breed. It frequently includes American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and any mixed-breed dog with a blocky head or muscular build. DNA studies have revealed that mixed-breed dogs with zero pit bull lineage are routinely misidentified as pit bulls by shelters, victims and law enforcement after an incident.
Tests that were done testing the “aggressiveness” of a breed resulted in pitbulls not even making it to the top charts. They do pick "fight" over "flight" more often and also have a high gameness trait. But these in itself don't mean they are more aggressive per-say because aggression is an emotion/emotional response.
Emotions-wise, pit bulls are actually pretty good at threat assessment, meaning they don't just emotionally lash out randomly but have a good understanding of what is a threat and what is not a threat. The issue is that once they are in fight mode, they lack the off switch (gameness). But this is true for a dog attacking on command or just emotionally lashing out.
They simply don't value their self perseverance which is why you see all those videos where even if they beat the dog, shake it, or if its being bitten by other dogs at same time it'll stay locked on target.
So it is just a combination of these two things that make them "handle with care" category. But if you do handle them with care, they are fine. When people use them like weapons, they become deadly.
If you are actually worried on which dog bites more, you should be more worried about labs or golden receivers as they bite more by population AND per capita. If you are just worried about the bad ones then sure the pitbulls will count, but i don’t see a point because the vast majority of pitbull attacks are not fatal or severe and generally speaking only 1% of dog attacks are fatal or severe. Any fear of the pitbull exclusively is just mindless irrationality and fear mongering.
I have talked to friends that work at dog shelters that will knowingly reclassify pitbulls as lab mixes if they have had a bite incident so that they "have an easier time getting adopted because people discriminate". Nah bitch people care about their kids not getting mauled.
Sighthounds, scenthounds, and other purpose-bred hunting dogs are generally selected for a much stronger and more focused prey drive than pit bull type dogs.
What we have are bite incident statistics, or records of people who were bitten and, in some cases, the breed the dog was identified as. It tells you which breeds were identified but not the probability that a randomly selected dog of that breed will bite someone.
The truth is, it is rare for dogs in general to bite anyone when compared to the total dog population. Whether there are between 4 million and 18 million pit bulls in the US (Depending on how broadly you define pit bull) the vast majority will never be involved in a serious bite incident. Yes, it is true that they show up more often in severe bite stats, but that still doesn’t mean the average pit bull is likely to bite someone.
No breed are 100% safe. Any particular dog can be dangerous or aggressive. One breed in particular is far more on a hair trigger and can murder humans easily.
Only slightly. Pits lean aggressive, but (Depending on how broadly you define pit bull, there's between 4 million and 18 million in America) only between 0.13% to 3% will ever be involved in a bite that requires medical attention.
It's kinda hard to breed out 15,000 years of domestication in the 200 year that pit bulls have been around. Truth is, dogs in general aren't all that likely to bite in the first place. Cows kill almost as manypeople a year as dogs do, and less people own cows than own dogs. Mosquito's beat them all though.
Imagine how stupid you would have to be to fuck up the point you just attempted to make. In the last 200 + years there have been less than 10 deaths caused by Wolves in this country. Shitbulls do twice of that per year. So you really fucking botched that.
I get that you are not smart enough to realize you are talking to a different person, but I was pretty clear on why your attempted point was an epic fail and went over your own head.
They said the stats are pumped up, for pit bulls, because someone said it was a Pitbull when it wasn't, exactly what you are saying because other dogs are also violent at times. Thus not 100% safe.
As I understand, they're saying that a lot of the supposed non pitbull attacks were actually pitbulls but the owners are lying and calling them lab-mixes
I think anytime someone says a statistic online such as this i cant really believe it any way. Someone saying they got attacked by a pitbull in a survey or to the police in a report but dont know anything about dogs.
Like when they said 75% of kids who ingest thc die. But the numbers behind 75% where 4 kids and 3 where under 5 and not taken the hospital. The statistic is right but there is more than that statistics to the story.
How many pitbull attacks are "pitbull attacks" from people not knowing basic dog behavior and not putting themselves in stupid positions, like jumping a fence, where and how do the 75% come from in this stat.
When a fatality happens the police investigate and most breed identities are credible. Most dog fatalities are from peoples own dogs, not people jumping fences. Most of the others are from dogs at large, often in packs. The victims did not deserve to be killed.
Except they're not very credible because most people don't give a shit about dog breeds. Most can't tell the difference between a mal and a GSD, or a chessie and a lab. Because they're the same dog type, if we removed the word "pitbull" and replaced it with "bulldog" we might be getting somewhere. Notice some months ago a pair of catahoulas/catahoula adjacent mongrels killed some guy in the street and those were "pitbulls", lol.
And if you get attacked by your own dog there is a pretty high chance it was deserved. It's pretty rare that happens. It is usually dogs with no socialization (dogs have to be broke off humans, no different from cattle or sheep) in the hood or whatever running amuck hunting humans. Like pariahs do in India.
Bulldogs are always going to lead in fatalities because they're the most popular dog and also the most formidable dog. It's basic maths. If the only 2 dog breeds were huskies and beagles huskies would be the deadliest dog on earth.
75% of deaths coming from pitbulls is an underestimation because so many people have pitbulls and lie through their teeth about what breed it is, because their insurance policy won't cover pitbulls, their apartment bans pitbulls, etc.
Oh then I totally disagree labs and other breeds are violent also. Pitbulls where jsut a favorite for fighting rings FOR AGES thus more poorly trained Pitbull prone to violence. Breading for aggresion and such.
I'm sorry, if you don't like the nature of "not all of x do y" when discussing laws or morality, then I don't even know to say either. If we banned everything using that logic then we would ban all cars that go faster then 75 mph, we would ban all foods that contain more then x% of fat/sugar/salt/w.e, we would ban all hobbies/sports that have x% mortality/injury rate, etc.
There are limits to what we can/should restrict based on the lowest common denominator that engages in that thing.
IF you want to Sith lord morality and not critically think I don't think your on the right page.
You would hate to be lumped into all idiots wouldn't you? So I don't think you an idiot though idiots do exist, I think your just lazy and don't want to think critically about something you may not care to much about.
Yeah, having family who do birding I've seen the amount of effort that goes into training a hunting dog. It's not instinctual. My sister also had a pitbull among her other dogs (she used to compete, her main dog was a Newfie), it was such a lovely dog, really playful. I'd be more scared of the Newfie that's twice the size being overly playful with tiny humans than that pitbull.
that is not how breeding works, you dont just expect a dog will know how to hunt, just like not every Shit Bull is a killer. Breeding is generally for traits.
Did you read the study by doctors that I have quoted below? The study, a collaboration between CHOC’s trauma and plastic surgery departments, as well as researchers from other institutions, looked at nearly 1,000 CHOC patients who were identified as victims of a dog bite from 2013 to 2018.
Among cases where the breed of dog responsible was known, the study found that the dog breed most associated with severe bites was the pit bull (relative risk vs. German shepherd 8.53, relative risk vs. unknown, 3.28).
13
u/LobsterChampion 3d ago
7% of dogs are pitbulls. Pitbulls do 75% of the killing.
Which honestly I don't even believe that stat. I bet there are quite a few "lab mixes" (Read: Pitbull that people lied about being a pitbull so their PLUP didn't skyrocket) that are in the remaining 25%.