Naturally, breed definitionally impacts physiology, which can and will impact how practically dangerous a dog is, but let’s not pretend other big dogs are meaningfully safer than this breed.
Ok… that study is a survey of asking dog owners if their dogs are good dogs. Wouldn’t the results be heavily biased? I would think most owners would say their dog has good behavior but who knows if that’s actually true without actual monitoring?
TBF I do think there’s a cultural aspect. If you search for ‘XL bully’ half the video results are about how to get your bully XL dog to build muscle mass and look intimidating. It seems people that are attracted to that breed are so because they desire (at least on some level) to have a dangerous looking dog, and actively work to make the dog fit the role.
I’m unsure how you address that behaviour, but it is a problem.
Make dog licenses a thing and enforce it? Remove and destroy unlicensed/illegal animals. Thoroughly vet (no pun intended) would-be dog breeders and licence them with a hefty fee. Personally I am against all breeding - animals are not here for us to modify as want or to be sold for profit. But I do accept there are certain breeds that are better for rescue/guide dogs/security.
Anyone caught after that banned for life from keeping pets.
Never going to happen though - governments don’t have the backbone, finances or resources. Easier to knock out few sound bites to keep the proles happy (like Tony Blair did when he told us he would ban hunting with dogs) then casually forget it and move onto the next popular thing.
Dog breed has no meaningful impact on predicting behaviour.
Naturally, breed definitionally impacts physiology, which can and will impact how practically dangerous a dog is, but let’s not pretend other big dogs are meaningfully safer than this breed.
Ok… that study is a survey of asking dog owners if their dogs are good dogs. Wouldn’t the results be heavily biased? I would think most owners would say their dog has good behavior but who knows if that’s actually true without actual monitoring?
TBF I do think there’s a cultural aspect. If you search for ‘XL bully’ half the video results are about how to get your bully XL dog to build muscle mass and look intimidating. It seems people that are attracted to that breed are so because they desire (at least on some level) to have a dangerous looking dog, and actively work to make the dog fit the role.
I’m unsure how you address that behaviour, but it is a problem.
Make dog licenses a thing and enforce it? Remove and destroy unlicensed/illegal animals. Thoroughly vet (no pun intended) would-be dog breeders and licence them with a hefty fee. Personally I am against all breeding - animals are not here for us to modify as want or to be sold for profit. But I do accept there are certain breeds that are better for rescue/guide dogs/security. Anyone caught after that banned for life from keeping pets.
Never going to happen though - governments don’t have the backbone, finances or resources. Easier to knock out few sound bites to keep the proles happy (like Tony Blair did when he told us he would ban hunting with dogs) then casually forget it and move onto the next popular thing.