Question

pitbulls are not inheratly aggressive

Answer 1

Your claim that "pitfalls are not inherently aggressive", while true, is not backed up well. While you do provide a link, a summary and explanation of the evidence provided is advised when making a claim to support your main point. Reading through the link you provided, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(ASPCA)--an organization dedicated to protecting animals from poor environments and circumstances--argues that pitbulls, as well as all dog breeds, are subject to a combination of nature and nurture. The practice specialized breeding throughout history for dogs to carry out specific functions has influenced the aggressive outlook on pitbulls due to them being bred to fight one another--but it does not determine their temperament entirely. In fact, genetics are much more complex than a simple gene for aggression, especially when mixed breeding comes into play. In addition, the environment and socialization of a dog is far more important than their genes alone. 

While the source provided does seem reputable due to the fact that it is an official animal care organization, reading through the article, I could find no links to outside resources or information for their argument. Thus, I investigated myself, and was able to find this study from Universities Federation for Animal Welfare on how there is no evidence to show that pitbulls have higher rates of aggression than other dog breeds. The study compared the analyzed behavior of 40 pitbulls and 42 other similar sized dog breeds from a shelter. When looking at it, very few dogs were returned for aggressive behavior, but in comparison, pitbulls were actually returned less. I do not think that this source is perfect; I think that its sample size could be bigger and more trials would need to be run. However, for the purposes of this claim, it is useful support and has valuable data to support the fact that pitbulls are not inherently more aggressive than other dog breeds; indeed, a lot of their perceived aggression seems to lie in stigma and expectation rather than reality.

Here is the link to the study:

https://faunalytics.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MacNeil-Allcock%20Pitbull%20Study%202011%20UFAW.pdf

Comments

This was a great fact check. I liked that you were able to find a more reliable source to back up this claim. One thing is you could have looked at other articles to see if they had done studies with a larger sample size to give you a better understanding.

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Hi, your review looks great. It seems like you guys were having a hard time finding more valid statistics. There is this fact page from the Humane Society that also quotes a study saying how aggression is not a breed characteristic. Hope this helps. https://www.thehumanesociety.org/debunking-pit-bull-myths/
https://atts.org/breed-statistics/statistics-page1/

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I thought that this fact-check was great. It provided extensive information about whether pit bulls are inherently aggressive that made it easy for me to understand your stance. The specific evidence provided adds to the fact-check and makes it a reliable source. It was also good how you linked the study that you used for the information you incorporated into your fact-check

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Hi, I also agree that this was a very good and informational fact check. While you gave good feedback to the original claim, you gave another source that could help elevate the original source.

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I appreciate your Fact Check on this claim, you went very in depth with your response especially considering that the original claim was misspelled and simply contained a link to an article which is not an inherently trustworthy website. The claim is true but does not prove it, and you did prove it here.

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This was nicely put and the website and study you provided strengthened your answer. Also the study you provided was very much legit so extra points! One critic is perhaps providing more sources.

Answer 2

While the claim that pitbulls are not inherently aggressive is true, the evidence you used provided no evidence to back itself up, and instead was just a statement form the ASPCA on pitbulls. Looking at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) claim, they state that all dogs breeds are subject to the genetics and traits they have as well as the environment they grew up in. They specify the genetics issues surrounding pitbulls is due to breeders specifically. While looking through the article, it seemed to match with a study done by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, which states how pitbulls are no more aggressive than any other dog breed. There is another study as well from the National Institute of Health which highlighted how Pitbulls have shown no inciting evidence to be any more aggressive than any other dogs. Ultimately it seems your claim was true yet the site you got it from did not search to cite any sort of material to provide as evidence from their claims, which on this topic seems to be a common thing. 

Links to Sources

NIH Article

NIH Study

UFAW Study

Answer 3

The claim "pit bulls are not inherently aggressive" is a true statement that is backed up by good evidence. In the fact check the claim is backed up by information stating that pit bulls are trained to be aggressive stating that in the 1800s pit bulls were trained to, "bite and hold bulls, bears and other large animals around the face and head.". This means that pit bulls were directly trained to do these things, they did not inherit these traits genetically. The article also states that pit bulls are also known to be loving non aggressive companions. One can infer from this statement that based on the environment that the pit bull grows up around, is the kind of behavior that they will have. Upon further investigation, reachers also found that "in many cases suffer at the hands of irresponsible owners drawn to the dog's macho image who encourage aggression for fighting and protection." (Bobcock). This quote helps to back up the statement that pit bulls are not inherently bad by providing information that shows that they are likely to pick up aggressive behaviors from their owners for the wrong reasons such as protection, fights, etc. 

Link to the article: https://www.webmd.com/pets/dogs/features/pit-bulls-safety

Answer 4

I found this article from The Humane Society debunking all of the rumors around pit bulls. A lot of people believe pit bulls are cruel by nature but it's just how they are trained and the environment they live in. They are often known as a stronger dog species which makes people train them to be a protector, that can make dogs agitated and trained to believe that everyone is a threat. Leading them to bark loudly have with their natural strength be a form of predator. But in reality, they are just another dog.

Source: https://www.thehumanesociety.org/debunking-pit-bull-myths/#:~:text=2.,cause%20of%20aggression%20in%20dogs.