Raised as killers: pit bulls are recognized in the United States as the most dangerous dog breed

Leonid Zlotnikov

Not so long ago, the lists of the most dangerous dog breeds in the world were headed by Dobermans, Rottweilers and German Shepherds, but today the sad championship here belongs to pit bulls. All too often they make the headlines, and all too rarely it's good news. So, quite recently, in mid-October of this year, in Sochi, two pit bulls bit a 4-year-old girl to death.

The statistics confirm this. For example, according to the latest data, pit bulls are responsible for 90% of deaths from dog attacks on people in the United States. On the diagram, which is published by many media and social networks, the time period 2014-2020 is selected.

Experts have long said that the pit bull is the most dangerous breed for humans. True, one should also take into account the relative proportion of representatives of this breed in the total number of dogs. If we take into account the share of deaths in the total share of attacks by representatives of any breed on a person, then the Siberian husky will turn out to be the most deadly: almost every third of its attacks ends in death (26 deaths out of 83 attacks), while the pit bull has less than 10% deaths.

By the way, Dobermans continue to be very dangerous, the proportion of deaths from attacks by representatives of this breed of dogs is higher than that of pit bulls, and slightly less than that of huskies. The truth here is too small a sample for this breed to draw far-reaching conclusions.

But still. Experts say that despite the fact that American pit bulls were specially bred as fighting dogs, they are no more dangerous in themselves than most other breeds, and everything (just like in humans) depends on upbringing, that is, on training. A poorly trained or not at all trained dog of this breed really turns into a killer ...