Campaigners have welcomed the move to outlaw the breed they argue is "a clear and present threat to public health", but concerns have been raised it may not be practical and lead to other kinds of dogs being prohibited.
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.
You didn't actually respond to my comment about a request for statistics, rather posting some individual stories. So since I posted I found this article from the BBC. It states that:
In 2022, there were 8,819 admissions to hospital in England with dog bites.
So that's actually 24 dog attacks per day, so the problem is even more severe than you suggest, though the claim of only "some survive" then is misleading at best.
In 2022, there were 482 sentences given to owners of dangerously out of control dogs which resulted in an injury to a person in public
Out of all those hospital admissions, there's 24 attacks a day being deemed criminal by our justice system. That data suggests that this problem is by no means limited to the XL bully breed.
I don’t think I seemed offended. I pointed out that the fact you refuted wasn’t what the person you replied to was asserting.
I see the statistics you cite come up as the first result on searches. Did you look at anything else? “Dog attacks in UK annually” has a lot of results for me.
I pointed out that the fact you refuted wasn’t what the person you replied to was asserting.
There were two claims asserted:
"Not a week goes by in the UK without an attack by this breed."
"Some survive, many do not."
(Emphasis mine)
The first is not something I can find evidence for as there seems to be no break down easily availably by breed. And as for the second, most survive , 0.1% do not.
The down votes being given for asking for data seems like I'm offending some. 🤷
as far as info on which breeds are involved, I’m sure it’s out there.
Does not seem to be as you have also failed to find it. There is aggregate data for all dogs, which yes, is easily found actually refused some of the assertions that the person made.
Banning based on breed seems like a knee jerk reaction based on anecdotes.
482 dog attacks in 2022 resulting in criminal action but a fraction are caused by this particular breed.
In one recent study, researchers compared behavioural tendencies such as impulsivity and sensitivity to positive and negative stimuli – known to trigger aggressive responses – between eight dog breeds that are legislated against (including pit bull types), and 17 breeds that are not. This suggested that breed alone was a poor predictor of individual behavioural tendencies, including those related to aggression.
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.
It’s not really about reddit, unless you think the UK government also got their attitude from reddit. Personally while I have not been attacked by a Pitt, and have known people with some that are nice and some that are insane, I have been threatened by Pitts in public and I did not enjoy it.