Dogs

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All about dogs - dog breeds, dog training and behavior, news affecting dog owners or handlers, puppy pics, etc.

Rules (Will be refined later on).

Don't be a dick. This should cover most things, just keep in mind that everyone started somewhere and try to be helpful rather than rude or judgmental.
No personal attacks based on training style or tools.
Discussion of balanced training including proper use of aversives is allowed here.
All breeds and mixes are welcome. You can criticize backyard breeding practices but don't pile on people because they own a specific breed or prefer purebreds or mixed breeds.
Do not support backyard breeders or puppy mills. Please do not link to or suggest buying from high volume breeders or those with an obvious lack of standards and testing.
Do not help or support fake service animals. Please do not encourage people to buy fake service dog vest or ESA letters to get around rental or other restrictions & do not give advice on how to misrepresent a dog as a service or support animal.

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submitted 5 days ago by ickplant@lemmy.world to c/dogs@lemmy.world

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[–] gid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

bullies are innately more likely to attack when poorly trained, or;

Unfortunately I can't find statistics for the UK, but these statistics for the USA show that pitbulls account for 22 lethal attacks a year. That's out of roughly 4.5 million pitbulls (source). That is an incredibly low percentage, even if it is higher than the percentage of lethal attacks by other types of dog breed, to the point where we're comparing differences of fractions of a percent.

To give that figure of number of fatalities some perspective, roughly the same number of people (21) are killed per year by cattle.

But taking either of your points to be true, both these cases can be resolved without banning (and putting down or destroying) particular breeds, for example:

provide education on training and dog handling
better controls and standards for dog breeding
licensing/training as part of a condition of dog ownership

There are existing organisations and dog clubs that already offer some of these services, and would be well-placed to tie in as providers if these things were legislated.