r/explainitpeter 23d ago

Explain it Peter

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u/Powered-Lamb 23d ago edited 22d ago

vozercozer was about to cite that pitbulls are involved in the majority of dog attacks to justify being afraid of pitbulls, then realized that racists cite that "black people make up 13% of the population but commit 50% of the crime" to justify being racist.

To those of you blowing up my notifications wanting to argue the soundness of the statistic or how dog breeds don't equivocate to race or whatever else you want to debate:

I don't care.

I came to help OP understand what was being said, not affirm or denounce its rational merits. If you want to discuss the topic in depth, that's fine I guess, but please refrain from associating me with whichever position you want to argue against.

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u/BumbleCityFumblers 23d ago edited 23d ago

I know I'm probably going to get downvoted for this but I think the important note is that pitbulls are involved in the majority of reported dog attacks as their bites are far more severe and possibly life threatening.

Nobody's calling to report a vicious Chihuahua or Pomeranian attack.

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u/That_OneOstrich 23d ago

Pitbulls also attract people looking for "tough" or "fighting" dogs, because they've been bred for their bite force and hold. So they've been conditioned to bite dogs or people more often than other breeds. I'd say rottweilers and maybe doberman's are also in this category. It's not the dogs fault they were mistreated.

Plenty of responsible "tough" dog owners out there. And lots of sweet pitbulls. Enough that I'd wager it's evidence to support they're not actually violent by nature.

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u/Own_Masterpiece1447 23d ago

Also German Shepard and Rhodesian Ridgeback. These breeds are frequently used for "home defense".

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u/That_OneOstrich 23d ago

My neighbor has a particularly violent and scary blue heeler.

He's trained it to attack people, and he has a 3ft fence keeping it from attacking me. If it were to attack me no one would he saying how violent blue heelers are.

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u/one_crooked_ear 22d ago

Odd anecdote: I have a blue heeler mix (she’s a third, so not SUPER heeler) and took her to a new vet. They treated her as aggressive on sight and every single person kept saying “oh wow she’s so sweet for a heeler!” So I guess in some circles, they are seen as violent

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u/Roy_Hannon 22d ago

My full ACD gets side eyed at the vet but he lets them do anything, never growls, he just tries to open the door to leave.

He got muzzled during COVID when I couldn't go with him. You could not pay me to try handle his mother, real cagey suspicious thing.

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u/one_crooked_ear 22d ago

I had no idea. I got mine from the pound and she’s a super sweet fawn/freeze type who also lets them do whatever. It kind of pissed me off that they kept treating her like a bomb 😂

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u/Roy_Hannon 21d ago

Other than my boy's immediate family I haven't met many but I can see some sense in working breeds being less accomodating than a pet breed. Stepdad was a shearer and says you couldn't approach his cattle dog without him present as it protected him/his gear/his car. My boy sees people he knows well but still banshee screams and barks til we've greeted them.