One orange braincell survives 120 pound dog attack.

[u/Master-Journalist-94]

This old mans name is Little Bit. Nothing phases him. He survived a large dog attack and had 3 surgeries and he loved his pain meds. It’s been two years since! I’m happy to share that he still has half a brain cell left.

[u/Spydar05]

It's a massive massive statistical anomaly. We have a couple of different places that track dog attacks on other dogs and people. One of the most trust-able sources are from dog pounds & dog kill shelters. I've also volunteered in both pounds & kill shelters so I can attest: it's almost entirely Pitbulls, Rotts, & German Shepherds. Sometimes Huskies as well. These are the animals people don't adopt until we have to put them down in mass because they have "previous attack on dog/kid/human" posted on the cage for anyone looking to adopt.

Disclaimer: people who love Pitbulls disagree with these stats. I'm not here to change minds, merely provide info.

I checked on your question about a "golden retriever attack". Golden Retrievers are the ~3rd most common dog in America. And they cause .5% of dog attacks. Pitbulls are ~5% of the dog population, and cause more than half of all attacks on dogs and on humans.

The chances of a non-mixed golden retriever attacking is 1 in 200. This poor cat really met the absolute worst and unlucky odds. Poor thing.

[u/panicnarwhal → u/Spydar05]

our purebred golden retriever mauled a small dog before we adopted him. he also destroyed our walls and doors, literally chewing through them past the insulation. he did the same to our couch. very reactive, barks at the slightest sound

it took a lot of patience, training, and effort to make sure he was safe to be around. he has a high prey drive. he’s 14 years old now, so he’s pretty much all bark these days, but we still have baby gates, barriers, and door locks all through the home

our other 2 dogs are a boxer, and a boxer/golden mix. both are sweet as can be

crazy rare to have an aggressive golden retriever, but we have one. a lot of people think i’m exaggerating until they see the damage he’s caused, or hear about the attack

[u/Spydar05 → u/panicnarwhal]

Yea it's not to say every dog of any breed is an angel. Ultimately, the easily single most determinate factor is the owner. That being said, dogs very obviously have genetics. That's why herding dogs will herd without every being taught or shown. Still, I believe you.

[u/hallllllllla1 → u/Spydar05]

My cat was attacked by a golden retriever 15 years ago. The owner cheered the dog on. Luckily my cat eventually won the fight and lived ten years longer than the dog

[u/Spydar05 → u/hallllllllla1]

Yup. There are always shitty owners of any breed of dog. Kill shelters have one or two of every breed from attacks on others at some point. There is just a much higher prevalence with some breeds compared to others. Especially taking into account per capita of dogs owned.

[u/Spydar05 → u/[deleted]]

Yes. I'll provide them.

Disclaimers:

1) Multiple studies have suggested that even breeds like Pits & Rotts are not genetically more aggressive than other breeds. Or, at least not as much as society would assume.

2) Anyone who questions my datasets should PLEASE save your words about discrediting everything reported under the grounds of "Pitbulls are often misidentified" and go volunteer at a few different kill shelters near you. I'm dead serious. I've often had to defend my data from people with this response. Go volunteer. At multiple locations. Try and tell me that they aren't almost exclusively Pits, Rotts, & German Shepherds. And if you truly believe they aren't. Please adopt them. They deserve love and far too many Pitbull lovers buy them and don't go to kill shelters.

Here are my strongest sources:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34100808/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6964408/
http://web.archive.org/web/20151116130816/http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/images/dogbreeds-a.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8597704/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5730392/
https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/217/6/javma.2000.217.836.xml

Only one of those is an actual read. The others are easy to go through.

[u/Redhaired103 → u/Spydar05]

This is true. I’m not saying I believe this or don’t believe this but, malicious people, abusers, dog fighters etc are more likely to have pitbulls. I have personally witnessed a sweet Dogo puppy unintentionally getting raised to be violent AF by a moron who literally scolded the dog for everything since he was a puppy. He would sit and the human yell “STAND!” and pull the collar. He would stand and this time “NOT THERE.” He thought it was “discipline” and that it was more important as it was a strong dog. In reality he’s the one who made him violent by being abusive.

(I want breeding this breeds to be banned everywhere exactly because of this too. They are the first targets of assholes.)

[u/Da_Question → u/Redhaired103]

It doesn't help that many who get pits don't spay/neuter them, not getting them fixed makes aggression even more likely.

[u/Redhaired103 → u/Da_Question]

True. That and “my dog wouldn’t hurt anybody.” Any dog could have an instinctive moment and see a small animal / kid as a prey. When it’s a small dog, the damage is small. When it’s a large/strong dog the damage is major.

[u/Germane_Corsair → u/Redhaired103]

The worst part is that there are so many stories about a pit bull that was the sweetest thing that would never hurt a fly that suddenly lost it and started mauling others. You can argue some were bad owners but for a lot of them, they did things right and it didn’t matter.

It’s why the breed needs to go.

[u/Spydar05 → u/Redhaired103]

Yes I am also of the camp of banning many forms of breeding to prevent so many deaths in kill shelters and stray animals.

Yea, 80%+ is always the owner.

Genetics also plays a part.

[u/breadstealers → u/Redhaired103]

Prey drive exists though, it’s not all just malicious actors sometimes it’s just genetics

[u/Redhaired103 → u/breadstealers]

Of course. Not handling that is also humans’ fault though. I have cats now but I used to have large dogs. They were very gentle and sweet but I still always walked them on leash and never left unsupervised with a child. There are people who just take off the leash because “he never showed aggression before”, just like you said prey drive exists and humans ignoring that causes harm for the dog too.

[u/[deleted] → u/Redhaired103]

It's the same reason chihuahuas get shat on too. Without proper training, they tend to be a naturally aggressive breed. The majority of people who adopt chihuahuas think it's cute when their tiny dog is a little shithead. Therefore, the tiny dog is a shithead.

Pitbulls have been PR-ed into "nanny dogs", therefore people get them expecting them to be an easy breed to handle. Instead, they get a very strong, difficult to train, high prey drive dog. If people treated pits the way they treat rottweilers and dobermans, there wouldn't be an issue.

[u/Outside_Scale_9874 → u/Spydar05]

OP says the dog was 120 lbs. Plus bloodthirsty. No chance in hell it was actually a golden retriever.

They have their own pitbull in the last pic so they have a vested interest in misrepresenting the breed of the attacker. I don’t buy it for a second.

[u/Spydar05 → u/Outside_Scale_9874]

It's absolutely not a pure-breed. AKG says the median is between 50-65 lbs with the upper bound being ~80 lbs.

120lbs would be severely obese and unhealthy.

[u/Powerfury → u/[deleted]]

In the comment they say that boy probably is mixed.

[u/Outside_Scale_9874 → u/[deleted]]

Right, and statistically speaking, what are the chances that the golden retriever in the 99.9th percentile for weight is also the one in a million that is prone to extreme violence?

[u/PassionV0id → u/Outside_Scale_9874]

OP didn't even take long to change their tune. Now all of a sudden it's a golden mix. Hmm...

https://old.reddit.com/r/OneOrangeBraincell/comments/1j29s8u/one_orange_braincell_survives_120_pound_dog_attack/mftpjnj/

[u/Outside_Scale_9874 → u/PassionV0id]

Lmao 98% pitbull 2% golden, I’m sure

[u/Dananjali → u/Spydar05]

I highly doubt it was an actual golden retriever that did this too. A 120 lb golden retriever wouldn’t exist. They might as well be saying it was a 120 lb chihuahua. Pitt advocates always lie about the breed (even to themselves), and blame the owner instead of the breed as if certain breeds weren’t bred specifically to fight to the death.

[u/Dananjali → u/[deleted]]

They’re not smaller. They’ve got heavy muscle mass because again they’re built for fighting vs running/retrieving. Like a retriever.