Properly raised “aggressive breed” dogs. Pitbulls are the goofiest, most loving and loyal dogs I’ve ever met when they’re raised properly. Doberman Pinschers aren’t very goofy, but they’re pretty needy, loving, and loyal, preferring to lean against their family at all times.
Bears in the wild, or the wild in general. Yes bears and other predators can easily kill you if they want, but they almost always don’t want to. They’ll run from you well before you know they’re there. I’ve been going backpacking in the high country wilderness my entire life and have never had an altercation with a bear, cougar, coyote, or wolf. Follow proper procedures when you’re in their home (the wilderness), and they’ll leave you alone.
"The dog bred to point is pointing at a leaf, haha.
The dog bred to fight fought another dog, it must not have been raised right."
Just get a dog that has been bred for companionship if it’s going to be a house dog and save the heartache.
I understand, most pitbull owners don’t change their mind until blood has been spilled. I’ve seen it firsthand several times and these dogs were not being mistreated.
For other people, please look into dog breeds natural ability. Nurture will get you a well behaved dog but some have nature hardwired into them and it takes mountains of training to get it out of them. There are different breeds for a reason and it’s not just for looks. Just get the dog breed that fits your lifestyle.
The AVMA documented 66 human fatalities caused by pit bull type dogs, 39 by Rottweilers, 17 by German shepherds, 15 by husky type dogs, 12 by Malamutes, 9 by Dobermann Pinschers, 8 by Chow Chows, 7 by Great Danes, and 7 by St. Bernard dogs.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/dog-attack-statistics-breed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breed-specific_legislation
And if you think the numbers are skewed due to popularity…
Top 10 Dog Breeds of 2023
It’s no surprise to dog lovers that the Frenchie remains in the No. 1 spot, and the rest of the top five breeds follow a similar pattern. Same as 2022, the Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd Dog, and Poodle are ranked No. 2-5 respectively.
There’s some shuffling in the top 10 from 2022 to 2023. The Dachshund is making moves, jumping from the No. 9 spot in 2022 to the No. 6 spot in 2023. Rottweilers took their spot at No. 9 in 2023, moving down from No. 7 in 2022. Bulldogs went from No. 6 in 2022 to No. 7 in 2023. The Beagle remains at No. 8, and the German Shorthaired Pointer remains at No. 10 with no change in rank.
“Properly raised”. Of course a strong animal with sharp teeth who is abused, neglected, or forced to fight for its life in illegal dog fighting rings is going to be aggressive.
What about the pitbulls that were raised properly and then attacked anyway?
Universal healthcare. So scary only 33 of the world’s 34 most modernized countries have managed to make it work.
I should mention that only South Korea and Canada have TRUE Single Payer (which is, IMO, what the US should be working toward).
Any other type of “universal healthcare” has the effect of creating a premium lane alongside the regular one. However, if all of society has to use the same healthcare system, they will have no choice but to collectively fight tooth and nail to improve healthcare for everyone. This is the only way, IMO.
In a truly just society, the homeless man sleeping on the bench would have the same healthcare as Jeffrey motherfucking Bezos.
Minorities.
Spiders.
They’re such amazing creatures.
Australian animals.
Americans are the absolute worst at it and it’s just so stupid. Yes we have poisonous snakes and spiders, so does America.
We have more of them than America, yes.
You know what we don’t have? Large predators. You can go walking in the bush in Australia and you might see one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. You know what you do? You don’t fuck with it and continue on with your business.
You’re walking in America and oh, you’ve just stumbled across one of the multiple species of bears, coyotes, wolves, cougars etc. Animals that may chase you down and maul you. It’s not even a competition.
And you, as an American, might say ‘oh but you pretty much never see them’. Yeah same with dangerous snakes etc in Australia.
You know what we don’t have? Large predators
Crocodiles are pretty large, and so are great white sharks.
You know what’s funny though? I just finished writing about how bears aren’t scary, and then I came across your post saying American predators are more scary than Australian ones. Haha. I suppose it’s all a matter of familiarity.
Crocodiles are very large, but again, they are mostly in a pretty unpopulated region and again, they do not chase and attack, you just don’t go swimming.
Sharks are not Australian. For many years I’ve also had Americans and Japanese alike saying ‘oh Australia has so many sharks!’. It’s the ocean, there are sharks everywhere.
It is all about familiarity, but with a snake it’s literally ‘don’t touch it’. With a bear, you have to know which bear it is, best defence, carry a weapon etc. Not comparable.
Yeah, crocodiles and alligators seem pretty easy to avoid, as long as you don’t have to get into the water.
Most bears just run away long before people see them. I’ve spent half my life in the backcountry and high country, and I’ve only seen a bear 3 times in the wild, each time it was running away. Okay, 4 times if you count Yosemite, which I don’t since those are basically domesticated bears. To be clear, I’m not arguing with you, just giving you more details on the predators we have here. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them. I do carry bear spray in bear country though these days, just in case.
I’ve never seen a cougar. They won’t be seen if they don’t want to be seen.
Snakes are pretty much the same thing like you said, just leave it alone, but they’re a lot less likely to run away. The real danger with snakes is startling one when scrambling over rocks. They’ll just bite you out of self defense and then you’re in for a real bad time. I’ve only ever happened across rattlesnakes 3 times though. They’re very reclusive creatures. We killed the snake two out of the three times though, because both of those times the snake had set up shop on a path we frequently walked, and we couldn’t risk startling it one day without seeing it, and ending up dead, or losing a limb, or whatever.
Spiders are the worst, because they’ll crawl inside your shoes, gloves, sleeping bags, pants, or whatever, and bite you when you don’t even know they’re there. Thankfully we only have a few very dangerous spiders, and one of them is a web spider, so very easy to avoid.
