this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.