The home secretary is seeking "urgent advice" about banning American XL Bully dogs as footage shows one of the animals attacking an 11-year-old girl and a man in Birmingham. Suella Braverman has said the animals are a "clear and lethal" danger after the video of the attack in Bordesley Green emerged on the social media platform TikTok. West Midlands Police are investigating after two men, who were bitten and left with injuries to their shoulders and arms, were taken to hospital to be treated for their injuries after the incident on Saturday.
I don’t write off a whole breed, but I will say that my niece got her face seriously ripped up by a pit bull, and I have a friend who raised a pit bull from a puppy, devoted thousands of dollars and professional hours into her training and socialization, and she still bit someone simply for entering her house. I am leery of the breed.
Everyone I know who has been bit by a dog it was either a pitbull, pit mix, or chihuahua. And I’m not exactly worried about the severity of a chihuahua bite.
I was bitten by a golden retriever when I was 12. It looked friendly so I went to pet it, and it sunk a canine into my arm. I was just unlucky (and slightly stupid) though, and it didn’t rip my face off, so I think I did ok overall.
A German shepherd also tried to bite me when passing it on a narrow path, but it just shredded my jacket pocket.
A Yorkshire terrier also had a go at me once, but didn’t make it through denim jeans.
There’s a reason to tolerate Chihuahua, cat, or other small animal bites. They cannot kill a child.
To be fair, cat bites can leave you with stitches.
Cat bites often become infected when not treated properly. But at least they are basically incapable of killing you immediately or causing lifelong disfigurement.
Same thing for paper cuts.
Life is dangerous. No one gets out of it alive.
Pit bulls are great for home defence though
So are machine guns and flame throwers and grenades.
That doesn’t mean they’re safe.
The less safe the better for home defense. Grenades are destructive to their surroundings, you’d put your home at risk using those.
A pit bull would stop a home invader with minimal damage to its surroundings though. Why would you want your home defence to be safe anyway?
Every pit bull home I’ve ever seen is shredded - I’ve never seen a frag grenade go off in real life, but I imagine the property damage is about the same.
Yes, I’ve seen pitbulls tear down drywall and studs, upset the foundation, and shatter every window within a 50ft radius…
Okay, I’ve seen destroyed drywall and damaged studs, but you’re right, no broken foundation or blown out windows from a murder muffin.
I was bitten by an English bull terrier puppy. So now you know someone else.
You mean the breed that pitbulls were made out of?
Also puppies are a lot less of a worry than grown dogs.
No English bull terriers are smaller, not the American kind.
Pitbulls were bred from bull terriers to be a bigger version. So it’s not surprising a different breed of terrier is also prone to biting.
Lol sane. No warning. No reason. Actually bit me pretty badly too.
I got bit by an English mastiff. That wasn’t a fun experience at 6.
I’ve spent a decent amount of time around about a dozen pit bulls and never saw/heard of any issues with any of them. All but 1 were very sweet dogs and even he wasn’t being aggressive beyond making it clear that I was not to enter the property (growling and barking same as many other dogs would do) when we first met. After his owner showed up and we got acquainted with each other he was fine too. On the other hand I’ve been bitten by half the dachshunds I’ve met.
What’s there to be leery about? These dog breeds were bred for one thing and it sure wasn’t to be the perfect family dog.
Well no, that’s where you’re wrong. Human aggression was a trait that was absolutely bred out of these dogs.
Please go read up on how the American fighting pitbull dog was created, managed, trained, etc. Before throwing out bs online.
Well I did and it literally states in the first paragraph of the history of Pit Bulls on Wikipedia:
So I feel, idk, that you got some reading to do…
Oh how cute, you read a paragraph on Wikipedia…
Well what fucking sources do you have lmao?
Well I’ll just start with a top search result when looking for their history…
https://pitbulls.org/article/brief-history-american-pit-bull-terrier
I have owned and read about these dogs for decades, I don’t have nor am I going to go find all of the sources I’ve read over that time. I can tell you that you are incorrect in your assumption about the breed, as are virtually every other person who hates these dogs.
People like you are historically not worth talking to, you will deny any sources or information that I provide because you have already made your mind up about the breed.
I’ll leave you with this: this breed was created by humans, is in a constant state of misery because of humans, and is persecuted by humans because of human behavior.
These dogs are not at fault. But ignorance is rife with folks like yourself. I hope you actually put effort into learning their history but I know you won’t.
So no sources, nothing, what a pointless discussion.
I did and then encouraged you to use the same search terms I did to find it. It’s OK though you had no intention of legitimately engaging in this, I know. Later fucko.
If you will not write off a whole breed of dogs, you have not spent enough time around dogs.
Shepherds do not need to be taught to herd. Retrievers do not need to be taught to retrieve. Pointers do not need to be taught to point. Fighters do not need to be taught to fight.
These are innate behaviors. You can’t stop them.
There’s a reason pit bulls account for such a large fraction a dog related injuries.
And don’t let the pitbull defenders get to you with their “but it’s a mutt” or “they’re such sweet dogs” BS.
Of course they’re going to be nice to their owner. People who train and breed dogs to kill each other for entertainment are going to have no problem immediately bringing the dog that pisses them off out back and shooting them.
This is where I recognize that you are making stuff up. You lost me here…
Shepherds have some herding instinct, but they don’t magically understand herding.
You do, in fact, need to train a herding dog to herd if you want it to be any good at it.
On the flip side of the argument, I have a pit mix and she’s the sweetest thing in the world. Never has bitten anything other than a toy, and she doesn’t even bark unless she gets the zoomies while playing. She’s been great with my 2 year old nephew, too. Got her from the shelter when she was about a year and a half old. She’s 50% pit, so I feel like if it was genetic she’d be way more aggressive.
Obligatory dog pic:
The amount of lack of self awareness in this post…
My gun never misfires. Don’t ban guns from kindergartens.
posted on an article where a kid accidentally gets shot
Yet.
She has not bitten anyone yet. She might never. Or she might suddenly lose it and kill a child. That’s not something that ever happens in breeds like labs.
She’s sweet to you because people who breed and train dogs to kill for entertainment have no trouble killing any dog that pisses them off.
Uh that absolutely does happen with labs. It can happen with any breed. I’ve volunteered in rescue for years, and when I was working at a shelter, I interacted with hundreds of dogs, and the only time I was ever truly scared was with one particular lab. I don’t hold it against the breed as a whole, because it was his issue, but people need to be aware that any dog can bite and take proper precautions.
The lab should have been put down as well.
I think he may have been - he didn’t bite me, but when multiple volunteers refused to take him out because his body language read imminent attack, they pulled him for further behavioral evaluation. I don’t know what happened, but he wasn’t cleared in the time I was there. I’m not even sure why he was on the adoption floor to start with.
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That’s a dangerous way to think. There was a story about a golden retriever killing a baby in its carrier a few years back. The family said the dog had always been sweet and friendly, and the infant was too small to have done something like pull a tail or poke an eye.
I love dogs, I can’t imagine living without at least one and working with others, but way too many people assume that having a “safe” breed means nothing will happen. The vast majority of the time, everything is ok, but every now and then, a friendly dog bites someone in the face.
I think you should follow that last sentence with a description of why that matters. I know by inference, but some may miss your point that by “killing any dog that pisses them off” they were selectively breeding for obedience to the alpha to the exclusion of all else. And then maybe extrapolate on how that trait translates into fierce loyalt to one individual which makes everything else a potential target for attack.
You’re correct. Thanks for the clarification.
Big difference: mix
It’ll rip your face off, while looking cute!
I can. They are a non-natural breed created by people for cruel purposes and should be eradicated.
Ok fair enough. I just don’t want to be mean to anyone.
What’s a natural breed of dogs? And how do you measure intention?
Yeah. They were literally bred to be as vicious as possible.
We can write them off. I don’t blame the dogs, I blame the people who made them this way.
And my wife’s hairdresser has a vizla that bit her daughter’s face and caused her to get 100+ stitches and she’ll be scarred forever. Dogs can bite without warning regardless of the breed.