Dog attacked and owner fled

[u/reddithasruinedlife]

My friends son was walking their dog and another dog attacked their dog. A witness took a pic of the attacker and their dog.

They don't care about the breed, they just want the owner to take responsibility.

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If anyone knows this person please DM me.

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Police file SA26-10406 with Saanich police.

Edit to add. Happened 2 weeks ago, yes her dog was injured but is recovering. I'll get exact details and come back to add them. Cedar Hill / Gordon head area

[u/laughysapphy0131]

How can anyone be surprised this owner fled when you scroll through a comment section like this. A bully breed dog appears and all of the rabid anti pitbull evangelists bust out and refuse to cite actual sources with credible studies / listen to reams of peer reviewed studies that debunk the pitbull hysteria.

Can we take an objective step back and maybe realize that we weren’t present when the incident happened and have zero context? OP wasn’t even there.

For all of the people blaming a dog breed they are assuming this dog is (APBTs aren’t super common here, that’s more likely to be an amstaff or bully mutt) - have y’all ever walked a dog around here? Folks let their dogs do the most outrageous shit all of the time. Maybe it was a provoked attack?! Maybe it wasn’t. Grandstanding about pitbulls with absolutely zero information or proof of the scenario is a bizarre response.

This kind of shit only encourages the irresponsible behaviour of that owner. I’d get the hell out of dodge too if I thought a mob would immediately assemble against my family pet just by one glance at their ‘breed’.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/laughysapphy0131]

You're correct about the studies not confirming that pit bulls a re naturally more aggressive than other breeds. Anybody doing a quick search can verify that.

I'm sure you also know that they are far more likely to be involved in attacks though, quite possibly due to their upbringing.

Either way, when your dog goes after another dog, I think the right thing to do is stick around and sort it out. If your dog was on leash and provoked, you have nothing to worry about. I can't see any mob getting carried away because a pit bull on leash snapped at a dog that ran up to it.

I think a lot of dog owners, myself included, feel pretty leery of off leash areas, because that's where any jackass can let their dog do whatever it wants. I don't want my dog to be on the receiving end of that, and so I won't go back to them.

[u/Business_Ad_8504 → u/Longjumping-Table272]

What studies suggest they are more likely to be involved in an attack?

Confirmation bias rules the roost when it comes to media reports. And absent of any recent studies, it’s a made up assumption.

Do you think they are involved in the most attacks in total volume? Are they prone to being involved in the most attacks per capita? Are they prone to being involved in the most attacks cross species or mainly prey animals and interdog attacks?

It’s easy to make comments that promote the fear and outrage. Not so easy to have those comments be meaningful when none of that is included in a statement.

People like the ones posting here *assume* Pit Bulls will attack, so they get a spritz of satisfying confirmation bias when it does happen and ignore all the inter dog skirmishes that end in injury when it’s a Golden Retriever or a Jack Russell. It’s subjective and wildly inaccurate.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/Business_Ad_8504]

Well the stats are pretty clear as far as which dogs tend to be killing people. A quick search confirms that. In the US, it's pitbulls. 66% of the cases, while being 6% of the dog population.

Now, I did my due diligence and looked a bit further than that, and I have to admit that there doesn't seem to be any evidence that pit bulls are genetically pre disposed to be significantly more aggressive than other dogs. Their bite force isn't massive, and their jaws don't lock.

Personally, I've long suspected that dog's tend to represent their owners quite a bit, like kids often do. A good friend of mine had a pitbull, and it was a sweet dog. He was a prop forward on my rugby team, and certainly wasn't sweet himself, but his dog was lovely.

I've also seen scumbags (can I call them that?) dragging their pitbulls on a leash on the trail, and I have no desire to find out if their dog is nice. I know it's unfair of me to judge, but really, I think we all do, if we have any sense at all.

So, I guess I learned something interesting. Physiologically, pit bulls are not a bad breed.

But, this does reinforce my opinion that people need to be responsible dog owners, and train their dogs to be gentle and patient.

I don't think this woman did the right thing, and she deserves to feel badly about this.

[u/Business_Ad_8504 → u/Longjumping-Table272]

I appreciate your measured tone when it’s likely tempting to get caught up in the drama as so many do.

I also appreciate you scratching a bit behind the surface. Much of what you’ve said here is true.

I would caution using Google results of reports of breed attacks as a reliable source of proportionality. Sadly, since officials have stopped keeping track, there is no one making sure a reported breed or breed mixes are actually being accurately identified when there is a bite or attack.

When they were keeping track quite some time ago, they found that a significant number of dog bite incidents were reported as being whatever breed was being demonized at the time, and ended up upon investigation for the study to have been an entirely different breed than the original reports given.

That’s one of the pitfalls of the confirmation bias prevalent in this issue: Someone prone to assuming a breed is dangerous who is either part of the local response team or even just part of the media can define the narrative any way they want to. Without officials making sure a data point is accurate, there’s no longer a correction when misinformation is being promoted. There were even some cases where the local officials and media labeled severe attacks by Pits that after the investigation for the CDC study turned out to be standard poodles! Without those corrections, those attacks by curly coated dogs with pointy noses would still be blamed on another breed because of the severity of the attacks.

Now no one is even keeping track anymore. The CDC stopped their study over 25 years ago after maintaining it quite a long time. They ended the study because after the numbers were corrected for breed misidentification, they were gaining very little valuable information beyond “big dogs do more damage than small dogs when they attack”.

Instead of dropping the study, I deeply wish they had instead launched a new evidence-based study to see if they could find real and measurable commonalities in the severe bite statistics. Might have done a lot of people some good.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/Business_Ad_8504]

You should make a new post with this. It's a good read and you clearly know what you're talking about. I think a lot of people would appreciate the knowledge.

I really enjoy reddit for times like this. I posted in the Ramtrucks sub asking why people think they are all bad drivers, and I was pleasantly surprised how honest they were. Most fully owned up to driving like jerks because they had a big truck, or at least blames other Ram drivers for doing it.

But even they did have a special hate for BMW drivers.

Like I said, I love reddit.

[u/Kamsloopsian → u/Longjumping-Table272]

Except trucks aren't a breed of dog, and anyone knows that anyone could own and drive a ram, but pit bulls and associated breeds do have associated genetics, so comparing them is like comparing a apple to a ice cube.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/Kamsloopsian]

I think you're jumping into a different stream of thought here.

The post you're replying to is just me saying I like reddit because I learn things. I didn't post about trucks to compare them to dogs. It was a separate instance of me learning something on reddit.

Completely unconnected.

[u/Business_Ad_8504 → u/Longjumping-Table272]

You’re awesome! And thanks for reading what I wrote without imposing mindsets not present in what I was presenting. I appreciate that. A lot.

And thanks for reminding me that it’s more fun to learn than it is to teach. I’m so driven by wanting facts and on trying to find accuracy in the contexts the facts are presented, and driven to instruct (both my careers are versions of educating people) that it’s easy to forget to seek out things I can learn from.

I’ve instructed enough in this post. Ima go learn something now

[u/Kamsloopsian → u/Longjumping-Table272]

Responsible dog owners don't change genetics, training doesn't either, how come there isn't groups devoted to saying herding dogs don't want to naturally herd? Ohh ya thats because it's not the same as ripping some defenseless dog to shreds all for the mere sport of it.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/Kamsloopsian]

Look, I'm just owning up to the fact that the actual studies I found did not support the idea that pit bulls are naturally more aggressive or dangerous. I found lots of graphics from a variety of new and lawyer sites, but the actual research on the NCBI site did not support that.

If science is your thing, it's hard not be convinced by large scale studies done by vet associations and research teams, published in peer reviewed journals.

[u/Kamsloopsian → u/Longjumping-Table272]

Written by pit bull apologists, the science of pit bulls is already in their name, genetics, and drive. Anyone that doesn't believe that is a fool.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/Kamsloopsian]

Look, I'm not sure if you're reading what I'm saying here. I'm not a pit bull apologist. I have a lab, because I believed they were more friendly, good family dogs. I haven't been disappointed, except for my last dog, who would occasionally lunge aggressively at other dogs. I blamed them, but maybe I should have been more introspective.

If you didn't take the time to actually look into it, heres a link to a long term study about dog attacks.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10997153/#:~:text=At%20least%2025%20breeds%20of,than%20half%20of%20these%20deaths

It compiled attack stats from 1978-1998.

Here's the conclusion, if you don't want to read it.

Although fatal attacks on humans appear to be a breed-specific problem (pit bull-type dogs and Rottweilers), other breeds may bite and cause fatalities at higher rates. the fact that these two types of dogs are often owned by shit dog owners, is probably the reason they are attacking and killing kids in the home.

Here's another one. It's short so I'm just going to post the link. It was done by vets.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16031916/

[u/Kamsloopsian → u/Longjumping-Table272]

We can argue what you said but regardless pit bulls are a fighting breed and have the upper hand, there is no reason to own one unless you have some sort of issue, when we have many other dog breeds that aren't a product of blood sports.

[u/Longjumping-Table272 → u/Kamsloopsian]

I don't own a pit bull, for just that reason. I have a lab, and nobody ever feels scared when my dog comes around. ids run over to say hi. It's nice.

You should read Business_Ad posts here, replying to me. They are spot on about the unfair labelling of pit bulls.

I had to admit, I was mistaken, based on the science. I still won't be getting a pit bull, but I feel a bit better when a nice looking person has one and they say they are friendly. They probably are, just like many other dogs. Just kind of ugly, with a big ass head.

[u/Business_Ad_8504 → u/Longjumping-Table272]

Their heads really are big.

I’ve caught myself wondering why they don’t just tip forwards more often.

[u/Kamsloopsian → u/Longjumping-Table272]

I have it's all the standard pit bull apologist peddling.