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There are over 200 breeds of dog, it doesn't really track that only 2-3 breeds would be significantly more violent than the others.

We don't have enough data to be conclusive one way or the other, but if you look at the occurrence of strays and breed ownership by socioeconomic status, pit bull breeds are also very high on these lists.

This tracks with human data to some extent: people from lower socioeconomic groups are more often perpetrators and victims of violence.

Looking at breed specific violence and coming to a conclusion about temperament is very similar to looking at race specific graduation rates and coming to a conclusion about intelligence.



> There are over 200 breeds of dog, it doesn't really track that only 2-3 breeds would be significantly more violent than the others.

Why not? There are breeds that are taller or shorter, high-energy or low-energy, great hunters or awful hunters, and so on. And it’s not a mystery why some breeds got this way: they were specifically bred for it.


> There are breeds that are taller or shorter, high-energy or low-energy, great hunters or awful hunters, and so on

there are dozens of breeds in each of these categories — we don't have a single breed of dog that's 5x faster than all the others


While I don’t think the dogs are at fault, I’m not sure your argument follows. Why can’t we breed aggression in only a small number of breeds? We don’t breed short legs into all the breeds.


asked in another way: where are all the aggressive offshoot breeds from pitbulls? there are a wide variety of short-legged dog breeds; corgis, dachsunds, basset hounds, scotties, bulldogs... there's an enormous variety there... yet we're to expect that aggressive dogs are limited to a very specific appearance (seriously, an order of magnitude higher than almost all other breeds)? the data absolutely stinks

there are multiple other factors (social, socioeconomic) that are a better predictor of behaviors that can also be applied to humans


There are relatively few fatal dog maulings, but when there is one it's usually a pit or a rot:

https://www.statista.com/chart/15446/breeds-of-dog-involved-...

I think you should have to be able to deadlift 350 lbs to own either.




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