Dogs

They also are rarely serious bites so I'm not sure what point you're making

The point I'm making is that the framing of bully type dogs being more naturally aggressive or violent than other breeds is not the case.

they care if a dog mauls their toddler to death - which happens with far too much regularity

These deaths are tragedies, but are not regular. The reason they're newsworthy is because of how rare these events are.

I think a large problem with the narrative around dog breeds, and their associated traits, comes from a lack of education and understanding about breeds and traits. You're right, certain breeds have been selectively bred for certain activities: what this means is that collectively, dogs of this breed respond positively to being trained for that particular activity, as well as having physical characteristics to advantage them for that activity. It's not that all dogs in the breed are predetermined to show those breed's traits.

For example: border collies were bred as working dogs, specifically for herding sheep. Some have an innate herding instinct but generally they need to be specifically trained. A friend of mine had a border collie and it was the laziest dog in the world: it had no interest in herding or doing trial training. You can't assume a dog from a certain breed will display the generalized behaviours the breed is bred for.

It's telling that the biggest dog charities in the UK oppose measures for banning specific breeds of dog, because it does not work and takes attention away from measures that do improve safety, like responsible dog ownership and training.

A Shetland Sheepdog doesn't need to go to doggie college to learn to herd sheep. It is in their nature to chase and get everything together

That's 100% wrong. Except for the "doggie college" part. A working sheepdog ABSOLUTELY needs to be trained. Before, I thought that you might be under the illusion that dogs are machines that just instinctively knows exactly how to do a job without any training. Now I KNOW you're that stupid.

You put my sheltie in a field of sheep, and he'll make sure no sheep wanders off.

Not if he's not trained to do it right, no. Genetic disposition isn't a cheat code that teaches animals skills automatically. It's still learned behavior regardless of breed.

There is very little training you have to do to get a beagle to hunt rabbits

Hunting them in the right way rather than just randomly haring after them, pun intended, is another story..

Try training a St. Bernard to hunt rabbits...

Successfully? Sure. Unsuccessfully chasing after wildlife is something all breeds need to be trained out of, even gentle giants like St Bernards or tiny lapdogs.

Dogs aren't machines with certain behaviors hard coded

Since you said it, it must be true

And since every single expert in canine training and behavior says so.

Some might have generational trauma

So you are saying that past generational experiences can shape a breed?

Not to anywhere near the extent that you're implying, no.

Set up: Pit Bull and Shetland Sheepdog. Both in separate large pits. Gold bars in middle. Food and water is given to both, but no human contact ever.

Which pit would you want to retrieve the gold bar from?

In your mind, it shouldn't make a difference which pit

Speaking of minds, judging by that insanely contrived scenario, you've CLEARLY lost yours. We're done here.

I said provide your sources, don't put words in my mouth.

This is basically a forum, people discuss things on forums. There are statistics that you provided and now they're discussing them.

I'm curious, do you have any experience with training and handling dogs? Because breeding really doesn't work in the way you are implying or assuming.

Describing these dogs as bred for fighting implies that these dogs are pre-programmed to attack and fight. That's not how dogs work. Breeding for traits is about selecting for particular behavioural and physical attributes. "Fighting" isn't an isolated behaviour, it's a collection of traits like defensiveness, aggression, threat identification and so on, and to "fight" dogs need training on these.

As previous commenters have said, in the tragic cases where bully breeds have been involved in lethal attacks there are indications that the dogs were not handled/trained/socialized correctly.