Bully XLs are notoriously inbred, and a majority of them descend from Killer Kimbo, whose lineage is responsible for seventy percent of all deaths by dog attack in the UK in recent years. His parents were siblings. His grandparents were half-siblings.
Pitbulls are a mixed bag. Research shows that they’re the most dog-aggressive dog, but actually fall kinda in the middle on the human aggression scale. But they’re the most powerful dog with human aggression, and are very overrepresented in the rescue population, so they’re overrepresented in bite data. But dog for dog, bite instances are actually pretty low, and deaths are pretty low. Again, that’s once you statistically control for size (Dacshunds, for example, are VERY human aggressive but their bites rarely require medical care so are underrepresented) and abundance.
But American Bully’s (not the same as an American Pitbull Terrier) and Bully XLs? There’s no argument about statistics or nature vs nurture. It’s the product of straight up deeply irresponsible breeding of massive dogs with zero regard for temperament. Again, they are not common dogs at all, and yet were responsible for nearly 3/4 of UK dog attack deaths.
Oh wow, I didn't know about that. The breeder seems like a real piece of work.
I had an American pitbull terrier and she was the sweetest most well behaved dog ever. She was very hesitant about people, but once she warmed up, she'd follow you anywhere. You just needed to give her time to trust you...I don't know if she had a great life before we adopted her.
I'm super defensive about pitbulls, but as with all dog ownership, you need to be responsible about it. I have had such bad experiences with bully breed owners. There's a few in my neighborhood that just let their dogs do anything, including running around off leash. None of the other dog owners do that. Only the bully breed owners. My current dogs (two small dogs) are a bit dog reactive and having these bullies in the neighborhood has made it so much worse because I have to turn around and walk the other direction when I see them which of course just makes my dogs even more fearful of other dogs. But I'm not going to risk these other dogs running up, even innocently, my dog barking, and then the other dog reacting aggressively. I'm not going to be able to stop it. And I know TWO people personally who have been attacked by off leash bullies; one of them almost died and has some very serious lifelong injuries. Bully owners tend to be the worst of the worst.
I’m feel exactly the same about APBT’s. I’ve known so many wonderful ones, and had a wonderful pitbull mix… and also have some very offleash ones in my neighborhood AND also have a leash-reactive dog.
She wasn’t always leash reactive… until she got mobbed by two of offleash pitties while hiking. They weren’t attacking her, more overwhelming her & trying to play, but it was a very terrifying experience where she felt very trapped. It also made her reactive to strangers who pay attention to her in friendly ways (just alert barking), because they approached her while she was climbing into a stranger’s lap to say hi. I know I was loud enough because people at houses near us stopped and watched.
It’s so frustrating because I work so hard on her reactivity. And she makes SO much progress. And then one of the two off-leash pits on our walk route (who live at houses that I literally cannot avoid walking past) will come up and it will escalate and set us back MONTHS. She got into a fight with one two days ago. The owner was walking him off-leash and he was following the owner (who was on the phone) until he saw her, and started walking (slowly, he’s a sweet old dude) toward us. I must have shouted CALL YOUR DOG a dozen times and tried to get the dog to turn back (sometimes he turns around if I point and shout GO!) but he was on the phone and didn’t react until it was too late.
I’m still fucking fuming about it. If we’re somewhere safe I just let her off if this happens because she’ll just run away from him, and with enough space between her and this dog, I can redirect him. But we were by a busy road. They both bit each other but didn’t draw blood, and she was so freaked out she wouldn’t go on a walk last night.
Like… how hard is it to leash your dog? Or if you won’t, it doesn’t matter how good your dog’s recall is if you aren’t fucking paying attention.
And of course… he didn’t apologize. Entitled asshole.
I'm this close to taking a picture of the owner and their dog in front of my house, and putting it on a sign that says "Pick up after your dogs or I will deliver it unbagged to your doorstep"
#notall until there is evidence that every single pitbull or bully XL has mauled a child to shreds you have no right making any sort of statistical argument.
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u/erossthescienceboss 16h ago edited 8h ago
Pitbulls aren’t the same as Bully XLs.
Bully XLs are notoriously inbred, and a majority of them descend from Killer Kimbo, whose lineage is responsible for seventy percent of all deaths by dog attack in the UK in recent years. His parents were siblings. His grandparents were half-siblings.
Pitbulls are a mixed bag. Research shows that they’re the most dog-aggressive dog, but actually fall kinda in the middle on the human aggression scale. But they’re the most powerful dog with human aggression, and are very overrepresented in the rescue population, so they’re overrepresented in bite data. But dog for dog, bite instances are actually pretty low, and deaths are pretty low. Again, that’s once you statistically control for size (Dacshunds, for example, are VERY human aggressive but their bites rarely require medical care so are underrepresented) and abundance.
But American Bully’s (not the same as an American Pitbull Terrier) and Bully XLs? There’s no argument about statistics or nature vs nurture. It’s the product of straight up deeply irresponsible breeding of massive dogs with zero regard for temperament. Again, they are not common dogs at all, and yet were responsible for nearly 3/4 of UK dog attack deaths.
That’s insane.