I agree with the statistics that more of them have bitten people than other breeds, @WilliamFleming, but even they note that this is the result, not the innate cause. It's much more a representation of how people treat animals.

@Lauren it would take a more detailed study to sort that out I doubt very much if the huge disparity can be explained away by saying that pit bulls are treated differently. Various breeds have been developed to have specific behavior patterns. Pit bulls were bred to fight and kill and they are a poor and dangerous choice as a pet IMO. They’ve been banned in many places around the world.

This article is a classic case of cherry picking data. During the same period coved in the report there were over 61.1 million dog bites, 10.4 million that required medical treatment. #1 Chihuahua 2. Bulldog
3. Pit Bull 4. German Shepherd 5. Australian Shepherd 6.Lhasa Apso 7. Jack Russell Terrier
8. Cocker Spaniel 9. Bull Terrier 10. Pekingese 11. Papillion sourced from CDC statistics.

@glennlab Could you supply a link to these statistics?

@WilliamFleming I'll see if I can find it, I had to look at several different areas and weed out a bunch of opinion pieces in the process while I wrote the info down. I'll get back to you.

@WilliamFleming one is [caninejournal.com] not ther one I used, but has a good synopsys. I had deleted my search history while cleaning up my casche, so I couldn't remember the exact search time i had used. It was CDC dog bite statiscs or something similar.

@glennlab [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

Apparently pit bulls cause more serious injury when they bite according to this study. I was hoping to see a report of a controlled study rather than just a magazine article. I think a proper study would have to control for the dogs’ environment and for how they had been treated.

But why take a chance? Why are pit bulls increasing in numbers when they have such a terrible reputation?

@WilliamFleming Louisiana tried to write legislation to limit pit bulls, they failed to even be able to agree on a definition of what constituted a Pit Bull, it is simply not a breed. What they thought was a good definition included mastiffs, boxers, stafforshire terriers, bull dogs and others. 2 it is the owners, not the dogs. The other thing to consider is that there are only about 20 deaths per year from dogs, you should ban airplanes, firearms and eating all of which have a much greater chance of killing someone than any dog attack.

@glennlab “The other thing to consider is that there are only about 20 deaths per year from dogs,”

Good point.

Technically it’s not a recognized breed, however, there is a variety of dogs descended from fighting dogs that are aggressive and unpredictable, especially toward other dogs. There’s a description of the pit bull genre on Wikipedia.

Given all the problems caused by pit bulls, I think the question makes perfect sense.

@WilliamFleming Have you ever owned one? I have. She was a lover. Have you ever known one? I have. Many. The only bad ones I’ve known were raised in abusive settings, and even then they could be rehabilitated in the right hands.

@Bobbyzen The pit bulls that have attacked me and my dog were accompanied by women who did not appear to be abusive. Why own an unpredictable animal that was bred for fighting when there are inherently gentle breeds available?

@WilliamFleming I've been attacked by many breeds of dogs. It's on the owners, how the dogs are raised and trained. It's a good bet the women who owned those dogs adopted them and they had a history or abuse.

@Bobbyzen Good point. Other breeds can be threatening also. I’ve been nipped a few times. I wonder if there are statistics on this question.

@Bobbyzen [forbes.com]

@WilliamFleming Interesting. "There is evidence to suggest that owners of vicious dogs are far more likely to have criminal convictions for violent crimes which may go some way towards explaining the Pit Bull's disproportionate rate of fatal attacks." I don't argue there are breed-related behavioral tendencies. But musing over eliminating pit bulls is offensive.

@Bobbyzen , criminal favor pit bulls which make them the most likely animals to bite. And the lock on their jaws make them deadly. No fault of the dogs really. As usual it's the owners.

Sorry, @WilliamFleming, I had to go to work, but I think @Bobbyzen covered a lot of my thoughts.

I'm not disagreeing that pit bulls have bitten the most people, but they're more inclined to be adopted/bred by people who abuse them to incite aggressive behaviour. My grandparents had one that we nicknamed "Rex the wonder dog" because he could do no wrong and was the best pet in the world to them. I've also seen Doberman's who have had to be put down because the rescuers couldn't break the stupid training done to them; likewise, I've had and been around Dobermans - even rescues - who are the most gentle pets in the world. Right now a friend is fostering a 5-mos old pit bull who was found in a ditch. It's face had been kicked in so badly - probably by an imbecile who was attempting aggression training but the dog wouldn't bite - that it required major reconstructive surgery. The police are trying to find out who it was so he can be charged.

I'm not Pollyanna-ish about animals: I think most dogs can attack and do a lot of damage in the right/wrong circumstances, so should be handled appropriately (well trained), and unfamiliar dogs should always be treated with a healthy dose of respect.

@Bobbyzen Reminds me of my exwifes!

I'm curious as to the source of your quote? Even a dog bred to fight (an abominable event) has to work with human handlers, so it isn't trained to attack people. However, "tough guys" who want tough dogs as guard animals (or to use them in dog fights) typically abuse the animals to instill a fighting spirit. These people created the problem, and the act itself should be legally punishable because it's abuse. But the urge to spontaneously kill or maim is not a genetic part of any animal.

@Lauren Some dogs, like wolves, have an inherent urge to spontaneously kill or maim, and it is genetic.

@Lauren [forbes.com]

@Lauren ,@[petolog.com] my keyboard is dropping letters.

Most of them are loving and family oriented much depends on upbringing, we owned 2 one was a little borderline but we got him from a friend, the other we raised very sweet and gentile saw her catch a squirrel groom it and let it go

@bobwjr [forbes.com]

@WilliamFleming still depends on how raised, dangerous nasty people buy them and abuse/ train them not the dogs fault

@bobwjr Also, young people who tend to think "tough", obtain these dogs more often.
Young people tend to think they know about dogs. But it usually doesn't end well.
So, we have inexperienced dog owners, owning a hard to handle and dangerous dog.
You don't see older people buying pit bulls as much as the young.
It takes a special person to handle and train a pit bull species. Or a pro.

@bobwjr My neighbor has had two "pit bulls" in the last ten years.
The first one was a hoot. He would come running over every day to see me with a big grin on his face.
The next one is all business. I know the difference.

Deadly dogs! Would you engage a pack of wolves? Why not?

@Atheist3 Woosies!! I can take em, I can, I can!!

@Atheist3 I suppose you want to kill me too? Or maybe Golden Retrievers?
I don't even know what I am, Husky Shepard?

That's what I said about my exes!

I have to disagree. The pit bulls I’ve encountered were not large, but they were threatening and aggressive. It’s in their blood. Individual dogs might be gentle but I wouldn’t trust them around a child any more than I would trust a gentle tiger.