The Academic Impostor Behind the Pit Bull Hysteria

[rjsquirrel]

179. Hmmmm, Google scholar is your friend

Can't speak to the quality of Dr. Clifton's work, but the OP doesn't know much about science or research. JSTOR is not a comprehensive archive for science journals,and skews toward the humanities, plus it has a moving window that, depending on the journal, means it indexes articles at least three years old and often five or more.

But a quick search on Google Scholar does indeed turn up some visible peer reviewed publications.

So OP, you look dumb here. Your critique of Clifton is just false.

I am a real dog lover. I grew up with numerous dogs, including large breeds. I've interacted with many pit bulls ("pitties" is such bogus bs). Some were very sweet. But many were not. The breed has an objectively large statistical paw print, as it were, as a breed highly at risk for attacking children, pets, and strangers. Pit Bulls have been specifically over-bred for aggressive behavior in the US over the last twenty years, and you cannot know in advance if the one you are approaching is sweet and well socialized or dangerous and aggressive. If you make a mistake the aggressive ones have the ability to kill, much more so than most other large breeds. Actuarial science does not lie and there is a good reason no insurance company will cover your Pit Bull except at an exorbitant rate.

I had a small terrier once who was mauled by a Pit whose owner I insisted he was "sweet" and "well socialized," until he wasn't. Even on a leash he nearly killed my dog, until I was forced to nearly kill the Pit, which I did right in front of the owner still standing there holding her stupid leash, with a very large tree branch. It probably had to be euthanized, at least I hope so, and my dog took months to recover fully.

So the hell with your emotional defense of this breed. The burden is on owners to insure, restrain, train, and accept liability for a statistically dangerous breed. Some pit bulls are nice. Many are very, very dangerous, and bred and trained to be so. With jaws of steel.

If you've never looked into the eyes of an attacking pit bull, cut me a break. I've been bitten by several dogs in my life, including a GSD and an English bulldog. Neither one scared me away from their breeds. But pits are another story. They are not trustworthy unless you know the dog well.

So if you want to own one, keep it away from other people and dogs. But I favor making the breed illegal.