It is true that pit bulls make up a hugely disproportionate number of reported dog attacks, it’s also true that they are especially dangerous and have caused the most deaths by dog bite.
What many of these statistics fail to account for are environmental factors (pit bulls tend to be the most abused and most regularly abandoned dogs because of dog fighting and also because they are just a handful to properly train and care for.), it is also very difficult to gather accurate data on breed specific attacks/aggression because while pit bulls are the highest reported in most dog bite statistics, they are also not a breed as much as a group of breeds that includes:
The American Pit Bull Terrier The American Staffordshire Terrier The Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and The American Bully
A study found that dogs classified as Pit Bulls only had 43.5% DNA from Pit Bull-type ancestry.
The study, carried out in two shelters in California and Arizona, also found that 62% of dogs labeled as Pit Bulls had less than a 50% DNA concentration from Pit Bull-type ancestry, Pit Bull facts and statistics show.
Identifying the right breed of dog in attacks and death is incredibly difficult. This is why the CDC stopped collecting breed-specific data in dog bite-related fatalities (DBRF) in 1998.
The fact that there’s no official data to go by makes it even harder to separate myths from facts regarding Pit Bull attacks in the US.
Okay cool, so pits might make headlines more because of their strength and ability to inflict fatal wounds easier than other breeds but that goes for most large dogs.
German Shepherds had a similar stigma back when Americans were still xenophobic toward German immigrants and there were similar attitudes around that breed in the mid twentieth century. Prior to WWII Pit Bulls were a working class icon and were as much or more known for their reputation as great working dogs and loyal and loving family dogs as fighting dogs or vicious guard dogs.
Pit Bulls were bred for a wide variety of reasons and selected for many different traits but like most dogs they were foremost bread for physical traits and secondly for their temperament toward humans.
So what happened?
Racism it’s always racism.
No new owner may settle in the area so long as they possess such a dog. Critics argue that these bans are not based on sound scientific or statistical evidence—that pit bulls pose no greater risk than any other breed of dog. Advocates of these laws urge that the bans are crucial to protect the public health and safety from dangerous dogs. Yet, perhaps these concerns have less to do with dogs and more to do with the individuals who own them. Breed-specific legislation may be being used as a new form of redlining to keep minorities out of majority-white neighborhoods.
“We don’t want those people here,” a city council member said of the bans. Strong cultural ties exist between pit bull dogs and the Black community. The same is true of the Latino community. Research undertaken here to investigate this claim suggests that people of color are perceived to be the most likely owner of this breed of dog. While at the present time, actual ownership data is not available, if true ownership resembles the perceived distribution measured here, such a finding may form the basis for a legal claim. Under new law, breed-specific legislation could be challenged under the Fair Housing Act if it can be shown that these laws are disproportionately excluding minority groups.
-The Black Man’s Dog: The Social Context of Breed Specific Legislation, by Ann Linder
https://law.lclark.edu/live/files/32171-25-1-third-articlepdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6107223/
https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/resources/javma_000915_fatalattacks.pdf
Thanks I did some rather exhaustive research to put it together, you can read all the sources for even more info on how much bullshit BSL is.
You really think dog phrenology is gonna fly here? You’d understand it’s just a Trojan horse for race science right?
It is unreal how any time pit bulls come up here, random hexbearians who probably have normal left opinions about most other things will pop up to be like “Actually breed specific legislation is okay because these dogs in particular are evil”
Conclusion doesn’t apply to other nations without said racism/slavery history.
Where do you think pitbull hysteria originated?
Also lmao at the implication that the UK doesn’t have a history of slavery and racism. What the hell kind of take is this?
I think the word “said” is being overlooked here, he meant there is not the same type of anti-Black and anti-Latino racism and history of redlining in the UK as there has been in the US and that pit bull bans there do not seem to be geared in the same degree toward barring select races from moving into select neighborhoods. He wasn’t trying to say the UK has never had any history of slavery and racism with any race, just that attributing a pit bull ban to race in the fashion that the OP cites does not square with the dynamics behind the UK pit bull ban–which almost exclusively affects chud white people.
I’m Australian. Pit Bulls aren’t and weren’t owned by ex slaves or indigenous people here.
To be fair Black and Latino communities are where overt display of machismo and toxic masculinity might manifest in ownership of a pit bull. Furthermore in poorer neighborhoods with higher crime pit bulls sometimes get used in lieu of guns to threaten and rob people. If you read DMX’s memoir he talked about how he would go around with his large muscular pit bull and take things from people, then use the dog to intimidate them into walking away.
now watch labor do nothing with their clear majority
There’s been a lot of pit bull controversy in my area lately. The local indigenous group has been hunting them down after strays killed two kids and an old man from their community. Seems to keep the teenage boys occupied.
People get them thinking they’re badass and don’t bother training them. They can be very stubborn breeds, as most terriers are. And then the idiots just let them maul people’s pets and act shocked when the fucking things get shot or maced in response.
They’re also very popular with chuds here.
People get them thinking they’re badass and don’t bother training them. They can be very stubborn breeds, as most terriers are. And then the idiots just let them maul people’s pets and act shocked when the fucking things get shot or maced in response.
They’re also very popular with chuds here
People buy these dogs the same way they buy guns, in the hope that one day they’ll be able to shoot and kill someone without any legal repercussions. Then they are surprised when it backfires and the dog attacks them. 80% of people who own pit bulls are basically people who mistreat a dangerous animal instead of being responsible owners and doing the safety things necessary to own a pit bull.
I have a family friend who had a pit bull since he was a puppy (he died of old age some years ago). He was very aggressive towards strangers, but once he got to know the person, he practically didn’t care and, if he really liked the person, he would try to play with them like any dog does.
The dog racism in this thread is crazy considering we just had a thread yesterday about cat racism. Us Angloids really cant help ourselves huh
I showed you how pitbull hysteria has racist connotations and you keep doing this disingenuous bullshit.
It’s racism because dogs are more likely to be perceived as pitbulls if their owner is not white even if it’s like a boxer or some shit.
You people are so fucking tiring.
Pitbull hysteria is rooted in racism against their human owners, not the Pitbulls themselves.
Damn people got really in here really fast. Guess this is one subject that the reddit brain hasn’t been beaten out of reddit refugees on yet.
Nakoichi is a hero.
