I'm not a dog breed expert, but...
The other day an agressive dog that looked like a pitbull, suddenly lunged at me barking loudly... It was about 10ft away from me but still scared the shit out of me
The owner yanked the dog back on its leash and i thought, "FML, the only thing that saved me from a deadly mauling was a 3/4 inch wide piece of nylon with a metal clip the guy bought off amazon for $5"
"But my little velvet hippo couldn't hurt anyone!"
Hippos are super aggressive, territorial, and will bite a crocodiles in half. It’s amazing that’s supposed to be a cute, disarming nickname for a breed notorious for the same traits.
To be fair most won’t, but they definitely can and do.
Especially when they are jaws on legs that are more inclined compared to other dogs.
Yup. I've crunched the numbers before, and it's something like 1 in 10,000 pit bulls will attack a human or other companion animal every year. It's not likely for any given pit to attack a person (which I can anecdotally support–they're obnoxiously friendly and loving in my experience), but it's also like 10 times more than the next most vicious breed. In my opinion, it's not worth euthanizing every member of the breed, but it is worth neutering every one. We don't need dog breeds, especially ones responsible for over half of the violent attacks on people and other animals.
Of course, I'm in support of neutering all companion animals to reduce the stray population and ease the strain on shelters, regardless of breed or species. Breed specific laws are only one step towards fixing the larger problem.
The actual issue is that's it's a degenerative disease in dogs of similar breeds. At some point they get old and less able to recognize friend from foe. That might be ok if it weren't for the jaws you mentioned.
Exactly.
I'd go one step farther and even say if they even had the same amount of attacks as other dogs, had no possible mental diseases, and all want to caring homes I would still put restrictions/ban on them.
They are just too large to handle, too big of a bite to brush off, and end up in dog attacks a lot. That's enough for me.
It’s funny they call them hippos considering that hippos are extremely dangerous and vicious wild animals.
A shitbull owner using a leash, rare combination.
Unsurprising. Large “power breeds” like pit bulls I have always found questionable to have.
No restrictions or licenses? No muzzles at least?
A good thing they banned them.
Though I still dislike the outright malice and hate I see when a pit bull in a photo might be doing nothing but staring at a sunset. A bit hate crazy.
Literally all I'm saying is that the vast majority of pit bulls aren't violent. I fucking said I'm in favor of spaying and neutering the breed out of existence because the few that do become violent are excessively dangerous.
If you're a dog owner and you're paying attention, then your personal experience should include the following truth: any dog can go postal. If you then combine this with the knowledge that pitbulls are much more deadly than other dogs when being agressive, then you must reach the conclusion that this breed should be banned, even though that is admittedly a sad conclusion.
by that logic you would ban every dog on the planet
Every dog on the planet is more aggressive than all other dogs on the planet?
People with access to verifiable data overlook the appearance of safety to express a legitimate concern about a breed that's demonstrably more likely to kill? What dorks!
Every couple of weeks I feed mine a toddler, it seems to keep the violent tendencies away.
Whoa grab some popcorn folks cause this comment section is a dumpster fire. Do we have a lemmy drama community yet?
I do wonder how much is the breed and how much is shitty owners being attracted to perceived scary breeds. My guess would be a bit of both.
In the past I'd say it's a bit of both, though moreso the type of shitheads attracted to 'scary' breeds is also as likely to be shit at training/ socialising them. There's some good evidence though that this particular 'XL' breed has higher rates of inbreeding and has already been selected for agression (not to mention their increased size & power).
Think it's a fair point some are making though that just banning the latest dangerous breed is missing the wood for the trees. There should be serious penalties from any dog attack, for the owner; treat it the same as possession of a dangerous weapon like a gun or zombie knife.
You need to go one step further - why do people feel the need to own such dogs in the first place? Some people would say the dog is for protection (from who? And why are those people a threat? It's well known that lack of social and communal services lead to young people ending up involved with gangs and violence), others use it as a status symbol (don't even get me started on consumerism, and commodification of natural shit like animals), and in almost all cases there is a lot of toxic masculinity involved.
These are all deep rooted systemic issues that go far beyond both dogs and owners (don't get me wrong - I am not excusing bad dog ownership, and don't think people should be raising violent and aggressive dogs), and they all need addressing to actually resolve the problem, but it's much easier for those in charge to focus on the end result, and make it an individual issue, they don't care about making society better, they just want power and money.
It's bit of both. These morons aren't lining up to buy daschunds.
Literally all I'm saying is that the vast majority of pit bulls aren't violent. I fucking said I'm in favor of spaying and neutering the breed out of existence because the few that do become violent are excessively dangerous.
There's a story that a family dog got loose after a car crash. They found the dog a few days later ... herding sheep. No one ever taught the dog to herd sheep.
Pity, teachers should have a good pitbulls to stop the bad ones.
This isn't the time to discuss pitbull control.
They are poor misbreeds anyway.
It's really disheartening to see Reddit's irrational pit bull venom is just as present here. Notice how rarely you see comments from animal industry professionals chiming in with these opinions. It's not because professionals don't have their own breed biases, and they don't typically keep quiet about them, either. It's that most people with a lot of day-to-day experience with dogs don't share this opinion. Their experiences don't match public perception.
Bite statistics and behavioral euthanasias both in private and public spheres are anything but transparent. They also often rely upon witness statement accuracy, which is not reliable nor scientific. There simply isn't enough accurate information available to support such a vitriolic, knee-jerk reaction to a dog's breed in and of itself. There are too many variables to consider to accept that mindset as rational.
I encourage anyone who cares about these issues and who loves animals and people to consider volunteering. There are a lot of opportunities out there that you might be surprised are available. It's not just shelters who need volunteers, either, and you can find opportunities in an array of different settings and ways of helping. You might find that experience will give you a broader understanding of how complex these problems are, and how we can work to solve them.
There simply isn’t enough accurate information available to support such a vitriolic, knee-jerk reaction to a dog’s breed in and of itself.
Of course there is. Not a week goes by in the UK without an attack by this breed. Some survive, many do not.
Here ya go. I spent 7 years in the military as a dog handler with two different malinois during that time.
I then got out and worked for a government agency investigating dog attacks.
One of the first jobs across my desk was… an American Bully XL. Almost killed another dog and sent a male person to the hospital. The dog was from an upper class family and was around little children daily.
We had 7 dogs that we had confiscated, pending court hearing regarding attacks.
7 out of 7 dogs were bully breed dogs.
In my experience I will not trust a bully breed dog in any circumstance. I’d take a malinois any day over a bully breed dog.
“Garbage dogs for garbage people”
"Genetics matter, but genetics are a nudge in a given direction. They're not a destiny," Evan MacLean, the director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center at the University of Arizona, who was not involved in the research, tells NPR. "We've known that for a long time in human studies, and this paper really suggests that the same is true for dogs."
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/28/1095390872/dog-breeds-behavior-study
I've noticed once someone starts talking about "breed determines behavior, it's in their genes!!!!". It doesn't take much more for them to start saying the same about other animals, like humans.
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