A Brief History
On January 26, 2001, college lacrosse player and coach, Diane Whipple, was attacked by a pair of Presa Canarios, dogs that generally weigh well over 100 pounds. Despite being a world class athlete, the 33 year old Whipple was killed by the fierce canines.
Digging Deeper
While the long and low Dachshund is often regarded as the fiercest of dogs, the little wieners are not likely to kill a human. But what kind of dogs are likely to attack people?
Dogs big enough and aggressive enough to present real danger to people according to the MKP Law Group, include Pit Bulls with about 66% of fatalities, Rottweilers accounting for 10% of fatal attacks, and German Shepherds with 4.6% of deaths. Mixed breed dogs come next.
As far as non-fatal bites, Unknown leads the pack, followed by Pit Bulls, Mixed Breed, and German Shepherds. What kind of dog is not your “best friend?”
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite dog breed? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Glazebrook, Louise. The Book Your Dog Wishes You Would Read. Orion Spring, 2021.
Mav4Life. Dog Attack!: Top 10 Methods for Eliminating Dog Aggression! Mav4Life, 2017.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Smok Bazyli of guard dog training with Presa canario dog, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
