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Neighborhood Chat / Re: Dogs at the greenmarket
« on: October 05, 2017, 01:54:54 PM »
There is a lot to unpack here.
First of all, pit bulls are not a breed, but rather a nebulous grouping of dogs based on certain shared physical characteristics.
Pit bulls are NOT more aggressive than any other dogs. dogsbite is full of actual garbage "statistics" - basically they cull info from newspapers without realizing or caring that: (a) papers frequently misidentify the type of dog and have a bias to identifying almost any dog as a "pit bull" that bears even a slight resemblance to one, (b) when you take into account that the label "pit bull" comprises 4 or 5 breeds, they are as likely to attack as any other randomly grouped set of 4 or 5 breeds, and (3) that newspapers are significantly more likely to report on pit bull attacks than other type of dog attacks. Basically, it's all confirmation bias.
The notion that pit bulls are more dangerous than other types of dogs has been refuted by the ASPCA (https://www.aspca.org/about-us/aspca-policy-and-position-statements/position-statement-pit-bulls) and the Humane Society (https://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2014/07/pit-bulls.html), among other reputable groups.
If you are afraid of big dogs, just say that. Pit bulls are actually considered to have a temperament on par with labs. This is not to say that pit bulls never attack, but rather that labs DO sometimes attack - because they are animals. And animals are individuals.
This is a pretty good overview: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steffen-baldwin/the-lies-damn-lies-and-st_b_8112394.html
The bigger problem is off-leash dogs, which is mostly an issue with small dog owners. That doesn't mean we should go ahead and ban all small dogs.
First of all, pit bulls are not a breed, but rather a nebulous grouping of dogs based on certain shared physical characteristics.
Pit bulls are NOT more aggressive than any other dogs. dogsbite is full of actual garbage "statistics" - basically they cull info from newspapers without realizing or caring that: (a) papers frequently misidentify the type of dog and have a bias to identifying almost any dog as a "pit bull" that bears even a slight resemblance to one, (b) when you take into account that the label "pit bull" comprises 4 or 5 breeds, they are as likely to attack as any other randomly grouped set of 4 or 5 breeds, and (3) that newspapers are significantly more likely to report on pit bull attacks than other type of dog attacks. Basically, it's all confirmation bias.
The notion that pit bulls are more dangerous than other types of dogs has been refuted by the ASPCA (https://www.aspca.org/about-us/aspca-policy-and-position-statements/position-statement-pit-bulls) and the Humane Society (https://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2014/07/pit-bulls.html), among other reputable groups.
If you are afraid of big dogs, just say that. Pit bulls are actually considered to have a temperament on par with labs. This is not to say that pit bulls never attack, but rather that labs DO sometimes attack - because they are animals. And animals are individuals.
This is a pretty good overview: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steffen-baldwin/the-lies-damn-lies-and-st_b_8112394.html
The bigger problem is off-leash dogs, which is mostly an issue with small dog owners. That doesn't mean we should go ahead and ban all small dogs.