• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Here’s an idea- DON’T KEEP FUCKING WILD ANIMALS AS PETS! I don’t care if it’s half-dog, it’s still a wild animal. There’s a reason we domesticated wolves.

    • pan_troglodytes@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      saw a video recently that seemed to indicate that wolves initiated the domestication - scavenging from human’s trash & getting less wild over time.

      but yeah, dont left half-wild animals near children

      • modeler@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That is a leading theory, but that takes many many generations for the behaviours and instincts to change. And the wolf in question wasn’t one of those that initiated domestication.

    • bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Ehhhhh, i dont really agree. Whats wild? Cats arent domesticated. Snakes, turtles, lizards, and birds arent domesticated either but theyre kept as pets fairly easily.

  • stangel@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Wolf hybrids do not make good pets.

    Wolves instinctively fear and avoid humans, while dogs have been selectivity bred for 10,000 years to share our company. Mix those competing impulses into an animal with the reasoning ability of a toddler and you get an unpredictable and dangerous combination. Young kids especially may trigger defensive behaviors that can result in a crushing bite, or worse.

    • Sacha@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I used to have a neighbor who was one of those massive truck, baseball cap, toxic macho men. He would often talk loudly in his driveway and keep me up at night.

      He claimed his dog was a wolf hybrid. This dog was extremely aggressive and would attack children if given the chance. I NEVER saw that dog outside of the house. Being taken to walks, nothing. I only ever saw the dog through the door a couple times and every time it was the super aggressive barking. Not the normal bark, the one combined with bearing teeth, growling. Stuff from nightmares.

      I don’t know it that dog was a wolf dog, apparently they are legal to keep in Canada but may be banned on a municipal level. I wouldn’t put it past a toxic macho man to own a dangerous animal, not train it to scare children away and make himself look like a “tough guy”.

      No one that I know of got hurt by this dog. And the dog was isolated enough that it being a “wolf dog” was the only rumor. The guy claimed that he walked the dog super early in the morning -before anyone was out and about to avoid conflict with people and other dogs, but I never saw it.

      But I never seen him interact with his dog, never let it out. Never play with it. It’s not a pet at that point. It’s a dangerous doorbell.

      • Neato@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Dogs like that, that are aggressive and either can’t or won’t be trained should be destroyed, their owners fined heavily, and banned from owning dogs.

        Dogs are classified as property and a dog that hurts someone causes the owner to be liable. A threat of violence from a dog, said property, is not much different than an owner with a gun negligently pointing it.

        • sizzler@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I’ve been to some pretty remote farm locations and they always have three types of dogs.

          1. The pet - small jack Russell type that lives in the house.
          2. The worker - sheep dog type that accompanies the farmer in his day to day life. Often sleeps close to the house or inside when cold.
          3. The beast - doberman etc always caged in the day. No interaction from guests. Ferocious human haters. They will roam the yards at night and generally patrol.

          Each is part of the farm and has their place, to call them property is wrong because they are an essential part of the living.

          The problem to me is when one of the 3rd type lives in close proximity to strangers. That’s the last place they should be.

          • Neato@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            The beast - doberman etc always caged in the day. No interaction from guests. Ferocious human haters. They will roam the yards at night and generally patrol.

            If the point of this dog is to attack humans, or if that is incidental and it’s not trained to NOT do that, it should be destroyed. It’s effectively a sentient weapon that will attack people.

            There are trained guard dogs and watch dogs. Watch dogs alert people and guard dogs to intruders. Guard dogs warn off intruders and can be trained to attack if a resident is attacked. The latter is much more problematic and liable for lawsuits but what you described is a walking Wrongful Death lawsuit waiting to happen. Trespassing laws (in the US) don’t allow lethal force. Even Castle Law usually requires an intruder to be offering violence.

            • sizzler@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I hear you and agree in a perfect world they shouldn’t exist, but…

              Firstly the key word here is remote. Noone has any reason to be going to these locations unless invited especially at night.

              Secondly they are up against pikeys and gangs who will kill them without a second thought so they need to be as hard as.

              Thirdly, and obv can’t prove this but yeah they are trained that way with violence from their owner who beats them back to their cages each day if they are still out. As for the trespassing laws etc, then the dog just gets put down and farmer absolved of guilt with the dog having done its job he trains another. Nasty business all round frankly.

            • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It’s effectively a sentient weapon that will attack people.

              Well, yes, that’s the point. But not specifically people, but any animal coming into the territory, like wolves, coyotes, or foxes, that might kill livestock.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Too many dumbasses with Pitbulls as playthings makes up the majority of the problem. The vast majority of serious incidents with humans involve Pitbulls despite greater concentration of other breeds.

            In other words, Pitbulls haven’t been domesticated; or rather that breed is inherently aggressive. So sick of dumb owners who fall for the same ignorant trap that they’re different from the rest.

            • sizzler@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I grew up around Staffordshire pitbulls who all pitbulls are decended from. To me for a long time they were what a dog was cos everyone had one. Loving, protective, social dogs that had bounds of energy. Even “owned” one for a short while and was comfortable enough to walk off lead with her. Her only problem was other dogs, couldn’t be around them really and saw them as a challenge which was frustrating cos of how amenable she was the rest of the time.

              As my previous comment goes, she would fall under beast and is better off as a working defence dog and not around people or other animals really. That’s the issue, people keeping dogs that are trained for purpose and then keeping them as pets without purpose.

              • lennybird@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I largely agree with this. I simply think Pitbulls were bred with certain qualities that don’t take kindly to average urban lifestyles. My neighbor 3 doors down had 3 Pitbulls maul their golden retriever to death. Perfect example of what you said. Meanwhile the hospital nearby took a 2-year-old mauled by her own family’s Pitbulls a few years back. Anecdotes of course but that only corroborates the national statistics I already mentioned.

                The thing is, it’s almost always Pitbulls. Retrievers retrieve. Pointers point. Shepherds herd. Pitbulls fight.

                I say that as someone who was hospitalized by a German Shepherd for 2 days when I was 12 lol. The only dog I am more cautious with than a Pitbull is a shar pei. Whew… Bred to be imperial guard dogs… I knew one for years and I had very close calls with it.

            • FirstPitchStrike@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              Interestingly, AKC testing showed pitbulls to be among the best breeds with regard to temperament testing. They are large, strong, and often owned by bad people and bred and (not) trained irresponsibly, but there is nothing to suggest that any problems pitbulls have are systemic to the breed.

              • lennybird@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                For whatever reason, ER doctors and Trauma surgeons would beg to differ as to outcome on the front line; for, despite not being the most populous breed, they make up nearly 70% of all human attacks and 52% of all deaths, with the next breed being Rottweilers at only 10%.

                70%. Despite 6% of the dog population.

                Whether that’s a reflection of what I perceive as the oft copout, “it’s the owner,” that still begs the question of whether that risk is worth assuming for any owner, let alone the people surrounding the unregulated ownership of such an animal.

                Whether that’s owner negligence (even harder to evidence) or the dog breed, the end-result is the same: it’s a breed who exhibits by far the worst outcome.

                After all, isn’t it funny that all those irresponsible owners of other breeds don’t yield similar statistics with comparably-sized breeds…?

                In other words, (a) Is there evidence the owner of a Pitbull is inherently less responsible than an owner of a Rottweiler or a Doberman? I’ve seen no such evidence. (b) Is there a greater demand upon Pitbull owners to offset the risk to owning a Pitbull versus other breeds?

      • PopShark@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Does sound like good passive home defense though if it’s just constantly making its presence felt to any visitors

    • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Conservatives often prefer pets that are capable of inflicting harm on others. It is extremely common in the south for people to brag their big, mean dog is “part wolf” the way a 3rd grader brags about how tough their dad is.

      • Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Been living and traveling the entire south of the USA for the last 30 years. Never have I heard a southerner refer to their dog as a a wolf dog.

        • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Fair enough. The area where I am has an obsession with Huskies (despite it being hot as fuck here) and any mutt that looks like it could be “part wolf”. I have never believed a single person that has introduced their husky/mutt as “part wolf”, but I have met several from the 90’s to as recently as last year (my next door neighbor), unfortunately. It’s dumb, but it’s a thing with conservatives around here.

      • Newguy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Like, corn dogs? Salt on corn dogs sounds gross. But I wouldn’t snuggle a salty corn dog either.

  • 𝔇𝔦𝔬@lemy.lol
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    11 months ago

    Ah, daily news story about a canine attacking and or killing some one, especially a child or baby.

    Dog nutters will never learn.

    • Nusm@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      That’s the problem, this wasn’t a dog. This was a dog/wolf hybrid, which is more aggressive than a normal dog. That’s one reason why this is national news. The article also says that there were more children in the home too, so the owner should be charged with multiple charges of child endangerment as well as manslaughter in the death of the baby.

      This isn’t just a dog attack story.

      • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        In the wise words of @dio themself in another comment above:

        “They’re stupid. Don’t listen to them.”

    • naught@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Ok let’s see. A quick google indicates that there are 76,811,305 pet dogs in the united states. A forbes article estimates there are 4.5 million dog bites per year, and about 800,000 of those require any sort of medical attention, and 30-50 of those are fatal. According to the CDC that’s about the same as annual childhood deaths from the flu

      For comparison:

      48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC

      Guns are also a leading cause of death in children and adolescents specifically

      or what about

      There are nearly 43,000 fatal [vehicle] crashes a year [in the US]

      Also consider the positive effects of having a pet, which is proven to increase happiness

      Then you also have to consider that many dog bites and attacks happen due to strays (~15% according to that same Forbes article), provocation, negligence, or abuse. The average family, if they are remotely dog literate, has very little to worry about. It seems to me a fear or hatred of these animals stems from ignorance, as does hatred and fear of many things.

      • Vqhm@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        What?

        American Trends say we need:

        Bigger Trucks and SUVS with less over the hood visibility.

        Bigger guns with higher capacity magazines.

        Bigger more vicious animals?

        And bigger Flu?

        Welcome to the thunderdome!