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Poor sharks, they get one of the worst raps for how little damage they do to humans. I'm surprised to see dogs so high up on that list.
by cameronfraser 6y ago
Poor sharks, they get one of the worst raps for how little damage they do to humans. I'm surprised to see dogs so high up on that list.
- aclsid 6y agoWell, think about it. A mosquito bite seems harmless, while getting torn to pieces by a shark, in a medium where you cannot even run it is scary as hell.
- jl6 6y agoI suspect dogs aren’t particularly deadly, it’s just that there are so many of them and they collectively spend so much time near humans. Sharks on the other hand almost never interact with humans.
- csours 6y agoThe only reason housecats aren't at the top of the list is that they are so small.
- gpderetta 6y agoOr they cover their tracks very well!
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y agoWhenever I talk to people that think it would be cool to have a pet tiger, I tell that to imagine what a pet cat can do to a person. Now imagine if it was 500 pounds. And this is with an animal that has been domesticated for thousands of years.
- thrwaway69 6y agoI am not sure about that. In developing countries, rabies kill a lot of people. They might not directly kill people as much but their bites sure do. https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/health/2020/jan/11/rabies-still-very-common-in-india-says-survey-2088058.html https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/health/2020/jan/1...
- chubot 6y agoThere Are No Such Thing As Shark Attacks https://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=03214697105 https://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=03214697... I actually saw this standup bit recently and after Googling, it looks like it was borrowed ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLwYkZUNvKo&feature=youtu.be&t=96 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLwYkZUNvKo&feature=youtu.be... To clarify, it's actually the other way around, the standup came BEFORE the blog. Should have realized the upload date is not the performance date. https://www.espn.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/3722/shark-attack-or-petty-joke-theft https://www.espn.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/3722/shark-atta...
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoI'm thinking, that data is more of a heat-map of interactions. Any human interaction with a shark in its environment, shark wins. So as a per-capita, they might be near 100%?
- jacobr1 6y agoI'm not sure. Plenty of people swim in waters where sharks are regularly observed. And still the attacks are low. And further, with many attacks, I think in particular great-whites, they back off after the first bite, which allows for much greater survivability. So the ratio of "shark contact" to "sharks win" is probably low. And if you also add in fishing for sharks (such as for fins) humans probably kill a lot more sharks than the other way around.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoHm. Not convinced. Contact with sharks vs contact with mosquitoes, or with dogs, or anything else on that list? Most people spend maybe hours a year in shark ecosystem. Vs 365 days a year in dog country, or mosquito etc.
- tempestn 6y agoCertainly the amount of contact plays a roll. That's why dogs are so much higher than wolves for instance. But it's also true that most of the time people spend swimming around sharks, they don't get bitten. How the ratio of attacks to contacts compares between sharks and dogs or other animals I don't know; agreed that would be somewhat interesting!
- sosborn 6y ago> Contact with sharks vs contact with mosquitoes, or with dogs, or anything else on that list? Swimming with reef sharks vs taking a hike in a malaria infested jungle? Swimming with reef sharks please.
- jayrot 6y agoI know it's not the point you were trying to make but > Any human interaction with a shark in its environment, shark wins. this is straight-up wrong. Humans and sharks interact all. the. time. They're not killing machines. I imagine you probably know that, so I'm not trying to patronize you (honestly). But this is really important. SHARKS KILLED 4 HUMANS IN 2018. HUMANS KILLED 100 MILLION SHARKS IN 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/01/28/shark-attacks-decline-2018-both-us-and-worldwide/2700571002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/01/28/shark-a...
- quicklime 6y agohttps://xkcd.com/795/ https://xkcd.com/795/
- saghm 6y agoI was expecting this one before I clicked: https://xkcd.com/1252/ https://xkcd.com/1252/
- agumonkey 6y agoThat's just like flight safety records.. the issue with sharks is that when something happens you're 99% about to lose a limb or life. You run into mosquitoes 30k times a year, one of them may kill you, and most of the time you could have saved yourself on your own.
- jayrot 6y agoUhh, maybe? Shark attacks are quite rare, but I think you might be underestimating how many bites just result in stitches. Talking about "shark attacks" here. Not "Great White shark attacks". Likewise you're certainly underestimating how many airplane "accidents" don't result in any injury (again, not talking about "commercial airline accidents").
- Cactus2018 6y agoGruesome wikipedia page with detailed Circumstances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_t... The pattern appears to be, very young child, or older adult, attacked by either a pitbull or pack of dogs.
- bsanr2 6y ago*neglected/abused dogs of various breeds Many dogs involved in attacks are erroneously typed as pitbulls (which is, in fact, a designation encompassing at least 3 different distinct breeds); genetic testing later reveals that they were not. Pitbulls are the "Moors" of dog breeds. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109002331500310X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109002331... https://dogbitesohio.com/are-pit-bulls-unfairly-being-designated-as-vicious/ https://dogbitesohio.com/are-pit-bulls-unfairly-being-design... Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding pitbulls is influenced by shaky notions of racial and behavioral genetics that mirror eugenics and its progeny. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/08/racism-and-the-american-pit-bull https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/08/racism-and-the-americ...
- seppin 6y agoSomeone always pops up to save "pitbulls have a bad rep" but they also account for > 80% of all bites and deaths by dog. That's not an accident.
- teruakohatu 6y agoI used to belive that, but I have since come to believe that the explanatory variable in vicious dog attacks are the type of owners, and the breeders who supply those owners, not dog breed. If you banned pitbulls they would just switch to buying and abusing alsatians.
- EL_Loco 6y agoI've been around many alsatians, and many pitbulls (never had one, but many friends have). Given equal training, equal education (or whatever you want to call what some people do to their dogs), most pitbulls will be different from alsatians in temperament. When they are in attack mode, they're much more likely to not let go, and to bite much harder. There's a spectrum among breeds regarding the agressiveness of their attacks, and that's something you can't argue, I think. You can abuse the hell out of Yorkshire Terriers, they just won't be as dangerous as pitbulls.
- twothamendment 6y agoYeah, I'd rather have a neighbor with a shark than a neighbor with a dog.
- chrisco255 6y agoA neighbor with a shark is clearly a super villain.
- tomohawk 6y agoThe dog attacks are really more about dogs that have rabies. In countries that have good rabies control this is not an issue. For example, the US has 30 - 50 deaths due to dogs each year.
- barkingcat 6y agoNorth American and Western European audiences don't realise that while 1 dog can only sometimes hurt you, a pack of 8-10 non-rabid dogs can hunt an adult human down and kill them easily. In countries around the world, it's more about packs of wild dogs and rabies, instead of just rabies alone. Countries/Regions that have wild dog pack problems: India, Some Eastern European countries, South East Asia (almost all people who grew up in South Eastern Asia would have a childhood story of being followed home by a pack of dogs. They are quiet at the beginning, they follow you, and if no one else is home when you get there, LOCK THE DOOR and God protect you), some parts of Australia.
- brigandish 6y agoI had to regularly face down packs of wild dogs in India, probably the scariest thing I’ll do in my life. A trick my friend showed me in Greece (this was after India and wouldn’t have applied) was if you see a group of dogs at a distance and they seem threatening or interested, then bend down and pretend to pick up stone and they’ll back off.
- gen220 6y agoMy father grew up in rural India, has zero faith in dogs, and always carries a wooden cane on his daily walks to this day. Growing up, I was ashamed that my dad was so scared of dogs, but the dogs he grew up around were incredibly violent and unpredictable compared to the domestics we’re so accustomed to here in the States. I think he and his brothers raised a puppy they found in the village, and it bit him pretty terribly when it grew up, so he has zero trust for animals. And he’s the most rational man I know, so it was weird to see him carry this memory so strongly into his 50s and 60s. I don’t think he’s ever used it before (he lives in the Bay Area), but he’ll literally turn back from 5 blocks away if he realizes he’s forgotten it. I guess I’m trying to say: these kinds of environments are really traumatizing, and you should totally believe what the parent is saying. It’s a different world out there.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> Poor sharks, they get one of the worst raps for how little damage they do to humans. Sharks can't do very much damage to humans because, in the natural course of events, it is impossible for a shark and a human to meet. But sharks are quite dangerous conditioned on the fact that you're encountering one.