Highlights: In a bizarre turn of events last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that he would ban American XL bullies, a type of pit bull-shaped dog that had recently been implicated in a number of violent and sometimes deadly attacks.

XL bullies are perceived to be dangerous — but is that really rooted in reality?

  • hiddengoat@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    That’s literally what it fucking is.

    https://atts.org/about-temperament/

    “the sum total of all inborn and acquired physical and mental traits and talents which determines, forms and regulates behavior in the environment”

    And again, if you’re ACTUALLY worried about severe injury or death then you’ll be focused on significantly more dangerous breeds such as chows and shar-peis. But you’re likely not and just want to say “PIT BULL BAD” because you don’t understand how statistics work.

    • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Also, no your link does not say temperament is propensity to attack. A dog can fail the temperament test because it is shy or nervous, as per your own link.

      • hiddengoat@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Both of which are indicators that a dog may be fearful and prone to attack if it feels threatened. If you know nothing about dog behavior, why are you here?

        • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          You are really stretching the words may be a lot here. Most fearful dogs are more likely to run away, and will only attack if cornered with no other way out. Seems you’re the one who doesn’t know about dog behavior, would explain why your a pitbull apologist.

          • squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            That’s patently untrue. A fearful dog is very likely to be reactive, and that reaction will vary based on many different things, both personal to the dog and to the context of the situation. Fight or flight is a common way of remembering that.

            And a dog (or any creature) in a reactive mode is dangerous.

            You sound out of your depth here bud…almost reactionary.

            • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              Nope, spent my whole life around dogs. Fearful dogs are very unlikely to attack, they’re nothing like aggressive dogs.

          • hiddengoat@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            My guy, you are nowhere near as smart as your mother told you all those years ago.

            Live with it.

            • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              My guy, I really am very smart. 99th percentile or so through my PhD, and into my well published scientific career.

              Pitbulls suck and we need to stop breeding them, live with it.

      • hiddengoat@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        Okay, now learn to divide.

        https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7236a6.htm

        CDC, the people that actually track this shit, states 468 deaths from dog attacks in the US between 2011-2021.

        So about 45 on average per year. The exact number is about to be irrelevant.

        You want to lump all pit bull breeds together? Okay, let’s say they’re responsible for that TERRIFYING 70% of all attacks you pulled out of your ass elsewhere.

        70% of 468 is 327.6. OMG SO DANGEROUS! Until you learn to fucking divide.

        https://humanesocietytampa.org/pit-bulls-are-2023s-1-breed-in-the-united-states/
        “In 2023, pit bulls are the number one breed in the United States, and it is estimated that there are about 18 million pit bulls across the country.”

        327.6 divided by 18,000,000 means that you have a 0.0000182 chance of a given pit bull being responsible for a fatal attack.

        And that’s if you’re a disingenuous twat and smash all pit bull breeds together, which you would absolutely never do for all breeds with “shepherd” or “retriever” in their name.

        There is literally no reason for anyone to fear any dog that is properly trained and not raised by shitheads, and every reason to fear ANY dog that is not.

        It’s not by coincidence that the only dogs that have ever bitten me were all cocker spaniels. They’re almost universally owned by people that see them as cute and fluffy lap dogs despite them being considerable size and ill tempered when not trained properly. Do I like them? No. Would I ever want to ban them? Also no, because I’m not a fucking idiot.

        • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Pitbulls dominate the list of fatal dog attacks:

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks

          And yet they only account for about 6% of owned dogs. They are more dangerous than other breeds, vastly more so in fact. And just because dogs only kill a few dozen people each year, there is no reason not to eliminate the majority of that source of deaths.

          And I’ve had friends attacked by “well-trained” and friendly pitbulls. Really nice neck scars they got from that super duper lovely little pibble. Don’t know anyone injured by any other breed.

          And how many cocker spaniels have killed people? I;m seeing zero on the list of attacks.