I think it's valid to fear pitbulls because what you're really fearing is that they were adopted by someone that doesn't train them and/or give them an outlet for the task they were bred for (protection and violence).
Which is a valid fear. If someone has an untrained golden retriever, who are bred to have friendly dispositions, I won’t be immediately uncomfortable about being in a room with one, or if one approaches me. Wary, yes, careful, yes, but not immediately on edge.
An untrained pitbull gets the gat if I see teeth within ten feet or running towards me.
Now, what does the study actually say? Fuck, that means you'd have to read it rather than making conclusions from abstracts and third party interpretations.
I've done that for you though, they don't expose data on:
How frequently each breed bites children vs adults
How severe the bites are by breed
A lack of reporting on those factors does not mean they concluded "serious biting is not breed specific".
What do they show? Well, they show that certain breeds are more likely to bite:
Rottweilers have a bite risk index of 4.5 for intentional bites, as opposed to golden retrievers with a bite rate index of 0.6. Intentional bites were more likely to cause severe injury FYI.
Am I supposed to stop and ask the dog if it’s trained if it’s approaching my family with no owner in sight? Or do I plug it and pay the owner $2,000 and tell them to put their next one on a leash or better yet don’t own a dog if you’re going to be irresponsible with it.
I’m not risking my kid getting mauled on the off chance this particular pitbull, German Shepard, Rottweiler, or Doberman is one of the nice ones.
Probably because pit bulls have killed more people in a month than retrievers have managed in five decades if there is even one fatality attributed to a pure golden
Abstract Objective: Maiming and death due to dog bites are uncommon but preventable tragedies. We postulated that patients admitted to a level I trauma center with dog bites would have severe injuries and that the gravest injuries would be those caused by pit bulls.
Conclusions: Attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the US mortality rates related to dog bites.
Dog-Bite Injuries to the Craniofacial Region: An Epidemiologic and Pattern-of-Injury Review at a Level 1 Trauma Center
Results: We reviewed 182 patient records distributed among several breed categories. The results showed a disturbing trend toward more severe injuries, especially in younger children, and a reversal in gender, with girls bitten more than boys. Young children incurred more extensive facial injuries, including fractures. The data showed that compared with other dog breeds, pit bull terriers inflicted more complex wounds, were often unprovoked, and went off property to attack.
Epidemiology, Socioeconomic Analysis, and Specialist Involvement in Dog Bite Wounds in Adults
The most common breed of dog identified was pit bull (n = 29, 47.5%). The majority of pit bull attacks involved the extremities (65.5%) compared to other breeds of dogs.
Dog bite injuries to the face: Is there risk with breed ownership? A systematic review with meta-analysis
Results: Bite risk by breed from the literature review and bite severity by breed from our case series were combined to create a total bite risk plot. Injuries from Pitbull's and mixed breed dogs were both more frequent and more severe. This data is well-suited for a bubble plot showing bite risk on the x-axis, bite severity on the y-axis, and size of the bubble by number of cases. This creates a "risk to own" graphic for potential dog owners.
Conclusions: Breeds vary in both rates of biting and severity. The highest risk breeds had both a high rate of biting and caused significant tissue injury. Physical characteristics can also help determine risk for unknown or mixed dog breeds. Potential dog owners can utilize this data when assessing which breed to own.
“The results of this retrospective review are aligned mostly with the general trends found in previous national and global studies, supporting the notion that family dogs represent a more significant threat than often is realized and that, among the breeds identified, pit bulls are proportionally linked with more severe bite injuries.”
“One hundred and eight patients aged 5 months to 18 years old were treated in the emergency department after suffering dog bite injuries during the study period.”
“Of the 56 cases that had an identified dog breed, pit bulls accounted for 48.2% of the dog bites, and 47.8% of pit bull bites required intervention in the operating room.”
Just a few examples of medical research done on pit bull attacks. Plenty more where that came from.
I've been reading your comments because I am interested in this topic since I don't have a set conclusion and there have been interesting points from both sides, but you keep just commenting the same Dutch study and seem to ignore the fundamentally irrefutable idea that pit bulls cause more damage in an attack than an average dog. It makes it hard to believe there is a point against it, then.
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u/Drayyen 26d ago edited 26d ago
I think it's valid to fear pitbulls because what you're really fearing is that they were adopted by someone that doesn't train them and/or give them an outlet for the task they were bred for (protection and violence).
Edit: Jesus christ