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?
Let’s see, 1 person has been killed by a Chow-chow, and none by shar-peis in recent years, yet dozens killed by Pits. Yes, I see how chows and shar-peis are what I should be worried about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks
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.
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.