• ⛓️‍💥@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    I do not want to downplay how serious an attack from other dog breeds can be, but pit bulls are a breed that was bred for fighting. By that I mean physically the dog was “engineered” for the task. Even if dog attacks occurred across all breeds at the exact same rate, the pit bull will still be more dangerous on average.

    This is also ignoring the cultural aspect of it all. Pit bulls have had a long history of attracting some of the worst owners whether they deliberately raise the dog for fighting or are simply negligent, the outcome is increased danger and not just for yourself or your family.

    You want to put yourself and your family in danger? Great. Have at it. But expecting me to be put at an increased risk of danger? No. Fuck off.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      A family friend had a rescued one, and after they had a kid, it attacked the kid, damn near killed him. He had the dog put down and then…

      Rescued another pitbull.

      Pitbull owners are a special breed indeed.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      49
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yes, it is and people are assholes.

      Yes, pit bull bites are more dangerous. No, that doesn’t mean they should all be euthanized. They need proper training and that’s it.

      • someguy3@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        75
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        You’re missing the blindingly obvious solution that should be taken: spay and neuter them so that no new ones are bred.

          • someguy3@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            44
            ·
            2 months ago

            No amount of responsibility can overcome what 200 years of artificial selection at a rate of every 2 years.

            • Omnipitaph@reddthat.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              2 months ago

              Responsibility includes accounting for possible aggressive behavior :/ If you’re responsible for a chainsaw, you know to keep it oiled. You know to use it only in the correct environment, and you don’t have it anywhere near children.

              So yes, you can responsibly own a pitbull. Responsibility is being responsible for a subject; its well being, its actions, and the consequences of its existence.

              And yes, responsibility can overcome what 200 years of artificial selection at a rate of every 2 years has done. That is literally what responsibility is charged with.

              • someguy3@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                21
                ·
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                You’re trying to twist and turn here. Accounting for? You can’t overcome it. I say again, you can’t overcome 200 years of artificial selection.

                • erin@piefed.blahaj.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  11
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  My aunt has lived with two pitbulls for almost a decade now. Raised two small children in the same home. Nothing but sweethearts. Dogs are individuals, just like people. Just like having another person around your baby, you need to be responsible with any dog breed.

                • qyron@sopuli.xyz
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  8
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  Yes, you can.

                  If it was about weeding out the fight drive of the dogs, a lot of things could be done, without the need to drive the breed to extinction. Inside the pit bull gene pool there are two lines: the fighting dogs and the bait dogs. The last ones are those that display the lowest drive for fighting and aggression. There is nothing wrong with these animals except their lack of will to fight other dogs and this trait makes these animals less desirable to people breeding these dogs that know they can make good money by keeping the fight drive of the breed. These are the people that often show off dogs hanging from ropes off the ground, growling and twisting on it, to showcase the bite force of the animals.

                  Increase the frequency of theses individuals in breeding pools, weed out the naturally more feisty, and you can modify the race or any race very fast. Pugs and Yorkshire Terriers area two examples that come to mind of breeds that suffered radical changes on very short time spans because of aesthetic trends. No obstacle on doing the same thing to improve a breed for good reasons instead of shallow ones.

                  There are a good number of breeds out in the world much more dangerous than the Pit Bull. The Tosa Inu, which was specifically bred to be a fighting dog, the Presa Canario, also bred for fighting, the Rodesian Ridgeback, and many others. In the 90’s, Dobermans had the dirtiest reputation for being very dangerous. Nowadays, not so much.

                  So, your statement is misinformed.

                  note to mods: don’t like what I wrote, just give me a permanent ban and be done with.

          • Signtist@bookwyr.me
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            27
            ·
            2 months ago

            If we could rely on every member of any sizable group of people to all reach even the lowest bar of decency, the world would be a very different place. Any solution that relies on the idea of “if everyone just does x” is not a real solution, as much as I’d like it to be.

      • Tattorack@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        39
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Unfortunately there is a feedback loop somewhere.

        Pitbulls have a reputation for being dangerous tough guy dogs, so “tough guys” get pitbulls and proceed to not treat them well, this give pitbulls the reputation of being dangerous tough guy dogs.

        I live in Copenhagen, however, and I’ve seen some very nicely treated pitbulls, even one that was part of a family. They can be so gentle.

          • MehBlah@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            31
            ·
            2 months ago

            Guns don’t get old and have a bad day killing their owner. Pitbulls do unfortunately. I’ve seen good ones and bad ones but when they are hurting or just grumpy old farts they can go off. The difference between a shitzu and and pitbull doing that is the pitbull is powerful and the shitzu is annoying.

        • reddifuge@lemmy.worldBanned
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          That’s exactly how everyone talks about their pitbull until it rips their child to pieces.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 months ago

          Now hypothetically, if every breed except Chihuahuas was banned, and those tough guys were forced to buy those and not train them.

          Do you think there would be more, less or equal amount of dog mauling?

          • Tattorack@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            Less. Chihuahuas can be aggressive, bitey little shits without proper training. Most people I’ve seen with Chihuahuas don’t train them. It’s just a small little dog, what harm can it do?

      • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        2 months ago

        They need proper training and that’s it.

        https://eu.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2016/08/04/pitbull-kills-owners-girlfriend-sheriff-says/15719416007/

        Tuesday that 30-year-old (…) was found dead Monday night at a home near Newington from an apparent dog attack. (…) He says an autopsy revealed Wilcox died as a result of injuries received from the attack.

        Investigators say Wilcox was familiar with the pets at that residence and had handled them safely on numerous occasions in the past. None of the dogs in the home had any known history of viciousness or aggression

        Pitbulls are a breed designed to kill.

        You can have a Border Collie and it will be shepherding sheep on a screen, or dust motes on the floor, because it’s in their DNA.

        Killing and aggression are in the DNA of Pitbulls.

        Stop being weird.

      • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        2 months ago

        This is it, full stop. Dogs are individuals and should be treated as such.

        I helped raise and home two litters of Staffordshire pups, we kept a rigorous list of the owners that we interviewed and checked the homes once a year to monitor the dogs progression. We made the owners sign a contract stating that if the living standards weren’t up to snuff, we could reclaim the dogs. I worked with a fellow who raised Staffies for 30 years. In two litters, we had around a dozen well trained, friendly huggable porkchops. Two litters that had no recorded bites past a few months old (puppys nibble but can be trained), and showed no aggression with other animals. All those pups lived to old age, and passed in happy homes. I’ve also met too many pitbulls that were beyond any help i had to offer. Damaged dogs damaged by poor parenting.

        I know my story is anecdotal, and i don’t expect to change minds here, but i cant stand the outrage against such lovable dorks when something like the chihuahua exists.

        • crapwittyname@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          Dogs are animals, and no amount of training can make it certain they will not attack, because, as you say, they are individuals. Therefore a well-trained Pitbull remains more dangerous than a well-trained [insert literally any other dog breed here].
          I absolutely love dogs, including Pitbulls. I despair at what humans have done with selective breeding, by giving Pugs a lifetime of health problems, Pitbulls a greater chance of being euthanised, greyhounds a brain the size of a pea etc., etc. The right thing to do is to vote with our feet and stop the demand for breeds that shouldn’t exist. The real villains here are the people creating pure bred pits for profit.

      • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        2 months ago

        That’s not a valid argument, since it can be used elsewhere. Using that argument would confirm any racist or sexist stereotype as well, since you know what they mean. Just because someone has heard let’s see, that Jewish people are lizard aliens who drink blood and adrenochrome from babies doesn’t mean there’s some truth to it.

        I’m not using the above as an argument against pit bulls having aggressive natures; I mostly stay out of that argument (though the one pit I remember was a lovely pup). I am saying that as an argument backing up the aggressive claim, it’s a bad one to use.

          • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            13
            ·
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            You might want to adjust your thoughts on the second. Studies have shown that pit bulls are associated with black people, and that people who have unfavorable views of black people, especially as being violent, also have a correlation to negative views of pit bulls. You can find one such study here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11213322/

            Question: “If you had to guess, do you think Black people or white people are more likely to own the following dogs?” Source: Pooled Lucid Surveys, June-July 2020, August 2021.

            Not everyone dislikes based on racial association, but to claim there is none only illustrates that your argument is both invalid and uninformed.

            • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              2 months ago

              Studies have shown that pit bulls are associated with black people, and that people who have unfavorable views of black people, especially as being violent, also have a correlation to negative views of pit bulls

              Not OP, but - this has nothing to do with racism, WTF are you talking about?

              “Studies have shown”… My god, studies have shown that a breed created for violence and bloodthirst has a higher probability of being violent and bloodthirsty than those that weren’t, that’s literally all the context there was!

            • crapwittyname@feddit.uk
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              2 months ago

              That may be true in the US. Here in the UK there is no such correlation, and yet pitbulls here still cause more injuries and deaths than all other breeds combined. Odd, that.

              • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                2 months ago

                My argument wasn’t that it cancels out any studies showing pitbulls being aggressive; as I stated before, I wasn’t interested in participating in that argument. My argument was that stereotypes aren’t a valid argument that something is true. They then stated that dogs aren’t political, u like other stereotypes to which I demonstrated that yes, dogs breeds can be associated with political biases. I

                • crapwittyname@feddit.uk
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  Do you think that stereotyping applies here, then? You seem minded to agree that pitbulls are more dangerous in fact than other breeds, given you won’t participate one way or the other. So if pitbulls are in fact more dangerous then if would be reasonable, rather than irrational stereotyping, to be more wary of them, and to label them as more dangerous.

              • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                2 months ago

                Well racism and people’s perception of stereotypes often aren’t backed up by actual statistics.

                The study isn’t saying pitbulls are more often owned by black people, it says people think that to be the case regardless of evidence.

                It’d be like a study asking what race you think are the worst drivers, even if “most” people say “Asian” because of the common trope, it doesn’t mean that is true statistically, it just means that stereotype is commonly believed by the study’s participants.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 months ago

        Question is to what extent it is the breed versus the owners drawn to or scared away from the breed. These things can be self fulfilling.

      • porksnort@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        2 months ago

        Chill, you’ve seen it already. That is the plot to every installment in the Alien franchise.

        • MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          17
          ·
          2 months ago

          Did you finish the season?

          Spoilers below

          alien earth spoiler

          It felt more like a synthetic vs human drama, with aliens as side characters, than any other film in the franchise. Wendy being able to communicate with the aliens was very different also.

  • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    2 months ago

    Yes, there are shitty pit bull owners out there.

    No, not all pit bulls are aggressive, only non-neutered, poorly trained, or abused ones.

    Yes, it’s weird how the comic uses an overweight woman to characterize bad dog owners but not the victims.

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yes, it’s weird how the comic uses an overweight woman to characterize bad dog owners

      It also characterises “regular-weight men” as bad dog owners (second panel).

      but not the victims

      Yeah, let’s stop with the “skinny-girl victim” propaganda! Plus size women can be victims too!

      • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 months ago

        I think the second panel is meant to be the same woman given that their top is the same, the hair is the same length, albeit a darker shade, and in the third panel she is pointing towards the second panel.

        • Alaknár@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          I won’t argue about the second panel, even though it wouldn’t make sense story-wise for it to be the same character there, but in the third panel she’s very definitely pointing towards the fourth panel, not the second.

  • leburb@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    2 months ago

    Do you believe in evolution by natural selection? Of course I do! Do you believe in evolution by unnatural selection? No! Traits that relate to violence vary strictly as a result of upbringing!

  • I kinda feel like the xenomorphs could be not domesticated but maybe appeased for lack of a better word. They don’t like being held captive, and they are vindictive as shown by Resurrection. But it also showed them to be intelligent. If you gave them things to eat/implant with eggs enough to satiate them, perhaps they would think of you as a pet and leave you alone.

    • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 months ago

      Ehhh they’re an invasive species with a parasitic larval stage, we’re fucked. The more we appease the more their numbers grow and the less likely we are to be able to satiate them, much less them and any sizable human population (though there wouldn’t be a sizable human population very long).

      “One” question (ok one multi-part question), does anyone have data on the life cycle? How long until eggs hatch, how long in larval stage, how long until the little guy that bursts out becomes an H. R. Geiger penis monster, how many eggs can those penis monsters lay per day, and how many calories do they need for their daily intake?

  • BilSabab@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 months ago

    This reminded me of the glorious days of Dark Horse Alien series. Back in the day they did a series called Music of the Spears in which some shady tech bro captured one of the eggs (with NINJAS no less) and tried to keep a xenomorph as his musical buddy to write SYMPHONY OF HATE. It didn’t go well and we got the glorious sequence of xenomorph crashing a rock concert among other things.