Pitbull discussion started in The Awesome, Cool and Random Pic. Thread.

[Bryan]

Nature or nurture doesn't matter much once an attack has begun.

I will add this.

From the AVMA site.

Conclusion
Maulings by dogs can cause terrible injuries47 and death—and it is natural for those dealing with the victims to seek to address the immediate causes. However as Duffy et al (2008) wrote of their survey based data: "The substantial within-breed variation…suggests that it is inappropriate to make predictions about a given dog's propensity for aggressive behavior based solely on its breed." While breed is a factor, the impact of other factors relating to the individual animal (such as training method, sex and neutering status), the target (e.g. owner versus stranger), and the context in which the dog is kept (e.g. urban versus rural) prevent breed from having significant predictive value in its own right. Also the nature of a breed has been shown to vary across time, geographically, and according to breed subtypes such as those raised for conformation showing versus field trials.37

Given that breed is a poor sole predictor of aggressiveness and pit bull-type dogs are not implicated in controlled studies it is difficult to support the targeting of this breed as a basis for dog bite prevention. If breeds are to be targeted a cluster of large breeds would be implicated including the German shepherd and shepherd crosses and other breeds that vary by location.

 

[Trailrider]

I'll admit I'm always more nervous around a pit bull I don't know vs a lab I don't know. I've been bitten by two pits in my life, never by anything else. My cousin got attacked by his own rottweiler and had to kill it. Never trusted them either after that.

 

[Bear44]

The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) did a study of several thousand reported "Pitbull" attacks and found that the breed identification was wrong 82% of the time. A lot of them weren't even close misses. Dogs like Bernese Mountain dogs were being called Pitbulls in the reports. I personally know of a case where the dog was represented as a Pitbull on the news when in reality it was a Cocker Spaniel.

The statistics are wrong.

 

[Bear44]

I'll admit I'm always more nervous around a pit bull I don't know vs a lab I don't know. I've been bitten by two pits in my life, never by anything else. My cousin got attacked by his own rottweiler and had to kill it. Never trusted them either after that.

One of the most abused and abandoned breeds is the Pitbull. Because the media has labeled them an aggressive dog, people that want an aggressive dog get them. Then try to make them aggressive. Sometimes they succeed. If it doesn't work they abandon them.

Go to Fulton County Animal Control and take a walk through the kennels. You will immediately notice two things. First, about 95% of the dogs there are Pits. Second, even though they have as many as a dozen in the same run and have about 40 runs, none of them are fighting or showing aggression in any way.

 

[NewLeaf]

I've raised several and mine never attacked anyone . I'm sure any one of'em would have if someone tried to do harm to family or if they had been raised by the wrong kind of folks . This breed is the favorite among "the wrong kind of folks" (dog fighters, drug dealers, and such) ; so I'm not surprised at the numbers . But the breed is not to blame IMHO and in my 40yrs experience with them. Now my PomChi ....she's a different story = naturally a mean B**** haha

 

[Bryan]

The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) did a study of several thousand reported "Pitbull" attacks and found that the breed identification was wrong 82% of the time. A lot of them weren't even close misses. Dogs like Bernese Mountain dogs were being called Pitbulls in the reports. I personally know of a case where the dog was represented as a Pitbull on the news when in reality it was a Cocker Spaniel.

The statistics are wrong.

I will check it out.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

Oh look a graph from dogbites.org

Might want to do some research on that website, it's basically just an emotional outburst and screeching from one delusional woman who was bit by a pitbull.

The data shared by that website has been debunked by professionals time and time again but that never stops the person who gets in a "pitbull discussion" runs to Google and searches "pitbull bad" then goes back to whatever forum the discussion was on and acts like they've done some kind of research into dog behavior.

 

[Bear44]

I will check it out.

I wish I had a link, but I read it several years ago and I'm not sure it was ever published on the internet. I got a copy of the report from a Veterinarian.

 

[Glorfindel]

In my expieremce Chihuahua’s are easily the most aggressive dogs most likely to bite.

 

[Bryan]

From the AVMA site.

Conclusion
Maulings by dogs can cause terrible injuries47 and death—and it is natural for those dealing with the victims to seek to address the immediate causes. However as Duffy et al (2008) wrote of their survey based data: "The substantial within-breed variation…suggests that it is inappropriate to make predictions about a given dog's propensity for aggressive behavior based solely on its breed." While breed is a factor, the impact of other factors relating to the individual animal (such as training method, sex and neutering status), the target (e.g. owner versus stranger), and the context in which the dog is kept (e.g. urban versus rural) prevent breed from having significant predictive value in its own right. Also the nature of a breed has been shown to vary across time, geographically, and according to breed subtypes such as those raised for conformation showing versus field trials.37

Given that breed is a poor sole predictor of aggressiveness and pit bull-type dogs are not implicated in controlled studies it is difficult to support the targeting of this breed as a basis for dog bite prevention. If breeds are to be targeted a cluster of large breeds would be implicated including the German shepherd and shepherd crosses and other breeds that vary by location.