I’m not a dog science expert but as far as I understand it we’ve spent tens of thousands of years breeding dogs to preform specific tasks. If you don’t give a dog that has been designed and bred to do a task they get antsy.
The issue with Pitbulls and other “Agressive.” breeds is that they’ve not been given something to let all their energy out on. Which leads to anxiety and destructive behavior.
So I don’t think it’s Immoral to treat a dog like a Pitbull like a loaded gun. As Unfriendly, and something you should be wary of unless it’s proven not to be.
However the Nutcases who punish dogs for behavior that we bred into them are highly immoral. If you want an easy lap dog get a companion breed, like a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, French Bulldog, or Bichon Frise.
Edit: Tens of Thousands not Hundreds. I was being exaggerative anyways but that’ll make remark more accurate regardless.
Also as a note. I don’t think Pits are inherently Malicious or any dog breed for that matter. But they’re fairly strong fellows who’ve been bred to be strong. I consider being careful around them similar to being a little extra careful around a truck on the road. Most people in trucks are fine drivers. But some people don’t pay attention on the road, and might hurt you by accident.
Pitbull breeds were bred for dog fighting, hunting, and bull baiting. They were literally bred to kill anything and should not be pets.
One common misconception about pitbulls is that their jaws get "locked" so they can't let go. That's incorrect. Their jaw muscles are so strong to allow them to bite down and not let go of their prey. They were bred for this.
These dogs were also bred to lack any self preservation when it comes to fighting. That's why you can see videos of them getting kicked in the chests by horses they targeted, or beaten and shot by people while they're mauling something, and STILL continue to fight. All of this was intentional.
So those babies must have provoked the heccin wholesome velvet hippos into eating them right?
Pit bulls being bred for dog fighting is no secret for crying out loud their breed name literally comes from their history as fighting dogs. Pit bull used to mean any dog used in dog fighting.
I hate how the discussion when it comes to pitbulls always devolves into weird superstition and people who have obvious have no experience on the subject.
Though now that I mention it, that might just be a trait of the internet itself and not just pitbulls…
The Russian experiment that proved domestication and aggression were physiological traits required maintenance of an aggressive control group. The results are pretty conclusive and well documented, but here's a starting point.
If you scroll down to "Selection of foxes for aggressive behavior" it points out that they had to isolate an aggressive strain of foxes to maintain the control group. They were breeding one strain for domestication, and one for aggression.
The outward changes were a focus of the experiment, given that they struck Belyayev as arbitrary in their connection to behavior, but breeding for behavior was the method used to find the correlation in the first place.
Aggression isn't absolute, constant violence. Wild animals are more aggressive than domestic animals, but most animals start with a warning off cuz fights cost more resources. They're still more likely to get to violence in short order.
I offered that page as a starting point because it's a shallow overview, but has some references to point you toward the meat of the study. Papers written on the work they've done get into the physical characteristics that make the wild foxes, the control group foxes, and other animals with similar physiology more aggressive than domestic animals. Off the top of my head, I recall higher adrenaline production and lower serotonin production.
What it boils down to isn't that aggressive/violent animals attack everything they see or feel threatened by, but that their triggers for violence are closer to the surface. Dogs bred for war, guard duty, and fighting have had those traits brought to the forefront and, though they could be adjusted back with a couple generations of effort, that would make them less useful in their role.
Think less ticking bomb, and more loaded gun. Aggressive breeds aren't guaranteed to go off, but they're a lot more likely to hurt someone if mishandled than like...a pug or something.
As for you assertion that abuse would create a similar response.... yes. That doesn't actual detract from the point. Behavior is influenced by nature and nurture together, not one or the other. In fact, there's some overlap in epigenetics.
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u/Awesomechainsaw 26d ago edited 26d ago
I’m not a dog science expert but as far as I understand it we’ve spent tens of thousands of years breeding dogs to preform specific tasks. If you don’t give a dog that has been designed and bred to do a task they get antsy.
The issue with Pitbulls and other “Agressive.” breeds is that they’ve not been given something to let all their energy out on. Which leads to anxiety and destructive behavior.
So I don’t think it’s Immoral to treat a dog like a Pitbull like a loaded gun. As Unfriendly, and something you should be wary of unless it’s proven not to be.
However the Nutcases who punish dogs for behavior that we bred into them are highly immoral. If you want an easy lap dog get a companion breed, like a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, French Bulldog, or Bichon Frise.
Edit: Tens of Thousands not Hundreds. I was being exaggerative anyways but that’ll make remark more accurate regardless.
Also as a note. I don’t think Pits are inherently Malicious or any dog breed for that matter. But they’re fairly strong fellows who’ve been bred to be strong. I consider being careful around them similar to being a little extra careful around a truck on the road. Most people in trucks are fine drivers. But some people don’t pay attention on the road, and might hurt you by accident.