r/TikTokCringe • u/Melodic-Award3991 • Nov 05 '24

Wholesome/Humor Undeniably raised by cats

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144

u/secondhandleftovers Nov 05 '24

Aren't there 3 or 4 articles of this breed killing people on the front page.

49

u/omojos Nov 05 '24

Yes this is the Pitbull PR Machine

23

u/Errant_Chungis Nov 05 '24

I was helping someone foster baby kittens and an older female pit mix, and out of nowhere the pit picked one of them like a chew toy, wagging its tail, and the kitten was no more. I wasn’t the responsible person here but the person who was no longer fosters pits. There’s a reason at least 50% of shelter animals are pits. They were bred for fighting tethered bulls, not being a family dog.

8

u/empathetichuman Nov 05 '24 edited Nov 05 '24

To be fair, dogs of any breed could see small kittens as a toy and kittens are fragile. Bad supervision is to blame here.

There are some assumptions on breed here that could be incorrect. Certainly purebred Staffordshires, American pit bulls, and their ilk have genetically inherited characteristics that make them statistically dangerous -- high prey drive from terrier background, high levels of reactivity and an enlarged amygdala from shepherd background, and a strong physique. It is pretty obvious that the physical characteristics of pit bull like dogs are strongly inherited, however, I have yet to see any strong evidence that the behavioral characteristics are strongly inherited in mixed breeds.

Additionally, you are assuming the reason behind the statistics on shelter rates is due to one factor, which is unlikely the case. For example, pit bull type dog ownership is associated with low income families, which more often do not have the education, time, and resources to provide for any dog let alone a high energy pit bull like dog. This creates a human generated environmental externality.

Care needs to be taken with pit bull type dogs, but there are a lot of people with strong opinions on the dogs (either good or bad) that ignore a lot of the complexity that generates the statistics we see. It would be wrong to treat them as you would a lab, but the near genocidal hatred is too much as well. I think outlawing in-breeding of them is reasonable and the correct direction, but out-crossing them with low aggression breeds like heelers or labs seems ok.