Posted By Michelle on 05/14/2008 1:17 PM Third, statistics like "pit bulls are responsible for most of the deaths [resulting from] dog bites" fail to take into account several factors, including You should take it up with the CDC then. 
1) the relative population of the breed (if Pit Bulls are more prevalent in a population than Dalmations, then there are likely to be more recorded incidences of aggression by Pit Bulls than Dalmations, regardless of which breed is more "inherently" aggressive); Are there seriously more pit bulls than other breeds?
2) media bias, related to the controversial nature of so-called "bully breeds" (even supposedly scientific studies are really just surveys of media reports rather than consistently maintained records, which tend not to exist anyway -- case in point, the CDC stopped tracking which dogs were involved in fatal attacks after 1998, as they were "no longer conisdered to be of discernable value" for all of these reasons!); and What bias? I posted an article published by the CDC, not the media. Secondly, do you really believe there would be a sudden change in the last ten years?
3) owner bias, insofar that less responsible owners or owners who want to foster aggression in their dogs may be drawn to different breeds. Ah but wait, you said that the breed is not trained for attacking humans. So owner bias shouldn't play a role here. |