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
Not directed at the OP and some other people have touched on these things but I wanted to follow them up:
“pitties aren’t bad, just those people who don’t know how to train them”
If there is such a racialized view toward pit bull ownership, be careful not continue it without blaming the dog. Certain breeds are harder than others to have as pets for sure, and unprepared owners exist in all demographic corners of society. But it’s usually not one or the other, and to be honest sometimes a dog, especially a traumatized rescue, really just cannot be handled by a person, regardless of the effort or time they put in. What do you do then, keep it anyway or back to the kill shelter? Especially in this hyperdrive no-hobby economy, we don’t just have a billion Cesar Milan protégés able to adopt every difficult dog. IDK just something that caught my attention.
time is a flat circle, welcome back to the outdoor cat struggle session.
This is not specific to pits, but when I think about large untrained dogs I think about their effect on other species. Dogs represent the third most destructive mammal behind rodents and cats, and one documented case showed that a single German shepherd in New Zealand killed over 500 endangered kiwis. They’re even driving out other predators like foxes, hunting in feral packs. We are going through what has been identified as a mass extinction event, fueled by climate change, industrial agriculture, and habitat destruction by invasive species.
So beyond dog bites, large dogs with high prey drives have to be considered in the greater context. It’s hard to grapple with because we love our pets - I have two large dogs, one a pit mix (and indoor cats). But I never let them off leash unless it’s a fully contained dog park that I can watch them constantly. I don’t know what I’ll do after they’re gone in terms of adopting more, but I’m still looking/hoping for good ways to help combat pet effects on biodiversity short of banning more destructive breeds… or dispatching feral dogs in the wild 😕
I spoilered to keep the post manageable, but happy to discuss. I’m not saying these are right or even good takes but I figured I’d contribute at least.
i have a pure border collie but she has trauma from being extremely neglected for 4 years before we got her (rescue). Unfortunately she’s very reactive to unknown people/dogs and bizarrely choosey about when that is with people. A lot of the time she loves people and loves attention but certain individuals she gets snappy with. She doesn’t really bite full on but she’s warning nibbled on me and her vet a couple times. She’s good with small dogs but dogs her size and bigger make her extremely nervous but she will play with them once she’s gotten to be around them a bit.
Bc of all that we don’t take her anywhere we dont have control of the environment. For the last two years since we’ve had her we’ve been socializing her and trying to work with her to feel safe and she’s made a lot of progress but I still wouldn’t trust her around strange dogs and people without keeping an eye on her and I never take her leash and harness off her. Everyone is always like “oh you can take her leash off” but I need to know i can control her, it’s most likely just being over cautious but i’d rather be that than let her run around and get triggered by something.
:rat-salute: People who rescue dogs from shelters are comrades
It was super fucked uo tbh. They left her in a back yard unattended for years. she will probably forever have food security issues bc of that. A lot of her issues she’s gotten better about in the last couple years but that one idk what to do about lol she’s holding strong on it