Talk:Pit bull

Semi-protected edit request on 28 December 2023

After the line: Some studies have argued that the type is not disproportionately dangerous, offering competing interpretations on dog bite statistics. Independent organizations have published statistics based on hospital records showing pit bulls are responsible for more than half of dog bite incidents among all breeds despite comprising 6% of pet dogs.

Add the sentence: However, DNA analysis of mixed-breed dogs conducted by the company Embark suggests that pit bulls may comprise a greater share of the U.S. dog population, with nearly 15% of tested dogs demonstrating either American Pit Bull Terrier or American Staffordshire Terrier ancestry. (Source: https://embarkvet.com/resources/most-common-dog-breed-ancestry/) Slipagyp (talk) 04:33, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template.  Spintendo  05:10, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

I'd probably not want to make this edit, if there were further discussion, because there would have to be some WP:SYNTH to connect the proposed new source to the sources now on the page. Also, the proposed new source is essentially a commercial for the company. --Tryptofish (talk) 23:46, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 December 2023 (2)

The sentence " Independent organizations have published statistics based on hospital records showing pit bulls are responsible for more than half of dog bite incidents among all breeds despite comprising 6% of pet dogs" should use primary, rather than secondary sources. I don't know what the source for the "more than half" claim is, but I believe the population estimate comes from the site Animals 24/7: https://www.animals24-7.org/2023/06/28/how-many-doggies-are-in-the-window-dog-breed-census-2023/. Please modify this footnote.

If a primary source cannot be found that asserts that over half of dog bite incidents are attributable to pit bull dogs, that part of the sentence should be deleted. Slipagyp (talk) 04:55, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template.  Spintendo  05:10, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

I'd definitely oppose doing this, because secondary sources are better than primary sources for this purpose. --Tryptofish (talk) 23:48, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Agree,

When evaluating source of information you must start at the beginning. The information originates from animal24-7.org, which has been found by the Wikipedia community to be unreliable.

The only time secondary can bring validity or credibility to an otherwise unreliable source is if the author or the organization that published it is an authority in the field being dicussed. Times, Forbes, and all the other secondary sources that may utilize the unreliable data are not authorities in the field being dicussed, nor are their editors.

At some point i will take this issue to the wikipedia community reliable source to get a consensus and have it changed if a consensus it reached.Unbiased6969 (talk) 06:30, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: English 102 Section 4

This article is currently the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2024 and 3 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cmood4 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by DoctorBeee (talk) 18:28, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

This is encouraging to hear. The page can definitely use more of a scholarly touch to it. Good luck, a good place to start would be the talk page archives, but I am sure there is more out there that hasn't already been discussed too. Unbiased6969 (talk) 04:21, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

We'll see what happens, course assignment editing varies in quality. And this is a difficult topic. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:15, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Oh I'm sure it does vary, but the page was largely written without a NPOV by users with bias that discredit academia and cling to stats made by self-published blogs already determined by the WP:RS community to he unreliable. If it's not that, it's a 2000 CDC study that the CDC discredited not a year after it was published. Academia by a huge margin has concluded that the raising of a dog is a much stronger indicator towards its behavior than its breed.

I diageee, its not a hard topic if feelings and biases get left out, just some have a hard time separating them. The data is out there. Its not perfect though, because there are so many variable that the cost of running a single-variable study for the lifetime of various breeds is not feasible.

The dogs are much more capable of causing damage if they do chose, but it hasn't been shown that their breed is the reason why. Others may self-publish data saying otherwise, but I will just start my own .org and publish the opposite and it would be just as credible. Unbiased6969 (talk) 20:30, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

New UK ban on XL bullies

Should that be mentioned here? Geogene (talk) 22:41, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Could you link to potential sources? Thanks. --Tryptofish (talk) 22:56, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Nope. Pit bulls are already banned in the UK, so I am not sure what relevance that ban is. This is what I meant when I said its hard for some to remove their bias. Shall we include information about boston terriers, boxers, and dozens of other breeds that descended from the bull dogs? Or just anything bad we can find in media? Unbiased6969 (talk) 01:20, 7 February 2024 (UTC)