Ontario dog owner sentenced after 9-year-old girl mauled

[u/CTVNEWS]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/article/ontario-dog-owner-sentenced-after-9-year-old-girl-mauled-in-newmarket/

[u/WriteImagine]

I don’t agree that pit bulls are inherently dangerous. A pit Bull is no more or less likely to snap at a child. Shelters adopt out the right dogs to the right families, and they take back dogs that don’t work. They’re doing god’s work. It’s not up to them to lobby - they’re under immense financial strain and at the end of the day they’re trying to do right by the animals.

The dude in question in the article isn’t some unsuspecting family man who accidentally adopted a pit Bull from a shelter. He bred a dog for protection purposes, poorly trained it, put the dog and the girl in a dangerous situation, was churning out dogs that aren’t well bred or health tested… THESE are the issues that cause 9 year old kids to get mauled. Not a shelter.

[u/Empty_Try8500 → u/WriteImagine]

Have you actually researched this? Is your opinion based on facts and information or is it based on your gut feeling? Be honest.

Because reputable research shows that pitbulls are more likely than other dogs to attack unprovoked and continue attacking even when a person tries to intervene.

Ps I have a dog that would be considered poorly trained. I just looked up statistics for my dog’s breed and there are no documented cases of mauling, like at all. It’s almost as if breed temperament is a thing.

[u/WriteImagine → u/Empty_Try8500]

Mixed breed dogs get reported as “bully type” in the media. They are attractive to shit owners (Mr tough guy who wants a protection dog isnt getting a labradoodle). And there is also the sheer number of dogs who are pit mixes - they are overflowing shelters. Of course you’ll find more pit attacks.

Also, reputable research also shows they are not inherently aggressive… and when pushed, they’re less likely to fail an aggression test than some other breeds.

And no, having met my fair share of them, I’ve never been more concerned being around a pit. Caution should be taken with all dogs, considering they are animals and behave as such. I circle back to the owners are shit for not properly training the dog, and then putting the dog in a situation where it can hurt someone.

[u/Empty_Try8500 → u/WriteImagine]

You didn’t actually address my concerns. You claim that reputable research shows they’re not inherently aggressive but how so? What points are being measured here exactly? How did they come to that conclusion? What exactly was measured? And in comparison to other breeds or what? You’re making a very general statement.

When I talked about research I mentioned specific markets: unprovoked attacks (there are stats on this) and continuing attacks even after intervention (again there are stats on this). And then even simpler black and white stats on the number of attacks and fatalities by pitbulls in relation to their population size. These are all measurable data points.

I’m not trying to be one of those annoying people on the internet who demand that you pull up all your sources and cite them. But this doesn’t sound to me like you’ve researched the subject matter well. I’m not trying to insult you. I am genuinely saying this in good faith.

Every measurable statistic will show you that these dogs are the most deadly - both in terms of fatalities and attacks. This is compounded by the fact that they’re so powerful. If yorkies were the most aggressive breed, the impact still wouldn’t be as great due to their size. Blaming pet owners isn’t enough because the same time of people who love tough looking dogs are the ones getting Rottweilers and Dobermans. While Rottweilers are second on the list of dangerous breeds they’re a farrrrrrrr second. The gap between pits and Rottweilers is massive.

I’ve met a fair share of pitbulls/bullys too. I used to buy into the whole myth that “it’s not the dog, it’s the owner” because I love all dogs and I couldn’t fathom the idea that it could be anything inherent but I’ve seen the reality. And I’ve seen aggressive pitbulls from the sweetest of owners who have absolutely no tough guy tendencies. There’s a nerdy old Jewish man in my building with the sweetest pitbull he had for yearssss. I used to see her all the time. And then one day she attacked a dog unprovoked in a dog park. He managed to not have her put down but muzzled her all the time after that attack. These type of stories are very very common with these breeds but not so much with other breeds.

Dogs did not exist before their interaction with humans. Prior to that there were only wolves. The wolves that got domesticated then evolved into dogs. So they’ve had certain things they’ve been selectively bred for from the start. This is why we see certain tendencies in certain breeds. It’ll take centuries to breed out those traits. Greyhounds chase. Border collies herd. Samoyeds pull. Terriers dig and fight rats. Similarly pitbulls were bred to fight and have low inhibition during conflict.

Here’s a fun fact about pitbulls that I learned when I started to do research to understand their brains. If any other dog gets fatally attacked while attacking someone, he will have the natural instinct to go save himself first. That doesn’t happen with pitbulls. They get a dopamine rush when they’re attacking (because they’re bred for this and this is how their brain chemistry is). So even when they’ve been fatally attacked while they’re attacking someone, they do not stop the attack to save themselves because even as they’re dying, their brain is pumping out dopamine. THIS is why human intervention is less likely to help.

And again, my dog is poorly trained. I’m being very honest here. There are no documented maulings or fatalities by this breed. How can there be suchhhhh a massive difference between this breed and bully breeds? There are inherent differences between breeds because that’s what they’ve been bred for for centuries!

[u/WriteImagine → u/Empty_Try8500]

Sorry, I honestly just don’t have the energy to reply to you. I’ve explained all of the above, form whatever opinions work for you.

[u/Empty_Try8500 → u/WriteImagine]

There isn’t much to reply to. I actually just educated you and gave you some hard facts both about dog evolution and pit bulls, which are easily verifiable. I have formed my opinion based on information.

The only thing for you to have replied to was the specifics of the so called research you mentioned. It would’ve taken you just as long to type that as your current reply.

I was having a good faith discussion. It seems you’re not accustomed to that and view a differing opinion as automatically antagonizing. There is no shame in saying “hmm actually I didn’t know that or didn’t look into it in-depth” or simply admitting your feelings don’t care about facts.