There is not a single original source reporting a Result that substantiates this claim.

“Four articles specifically claim that the bite force of a “pit bull” type dog can be as much as 1,800 pounds per square inch. These days, with more articles available electronically, it is easier than ever to verify original sources (although no university library will have everything).Ī particular problem is what they call ‘daisy-chaining’ – basically the use of secondary sources (rather than the original) and not being clear when information is from the introduction section rather than actual results.Īt other times, however, they say it’s hard to know why these mistakes occurred. Patronek et al are not suggesting anyone has deliberately misled – rather, that mistakes have been made, and over successive papers by different authors, they have been amplified. In other words, there is no evidence for the statement that a pit bull, or any other kind of dog, has a bite strength of 1800 or even 2000 PSI.įor scientists, this is a reminder to be careful to verify sources. The final original source was not a scientific article at all, but a newspaper article that again provided no source for the data presented.” In 4 other original sources, none contained any statement or data about bite force, despite being cited by other scientific articles as though they had. In 2 of the original sources, statements about bite force were found, but there were neither data nor a citation to support those statements. “We tracked each citation to 1 of 7 original sources,” they write, “and did not find verifiable evidence (or data obtained from a controlled experiment) about bite force in any of the articles. They went through the literature to trace the statements back to the origin. They looked at papers from 1969 – 2009, and two court cases, that referred to canine bite strength. Patronek et al wanted to know what the evidence is for this. So those are the cars we can think of if we’re going to use Dr. In fact a Smart Fortwo weighs 1808 lbs, and a Mitsubishi Mirage is 1,973lbs. To achieve this, suppose that we had a dog’s jaw and wanted to press the upper portion down with this force, it would require our putting a pressure equivalent to the weight of a subcompact automobile (like a smaller Toyota or Hyundai) on the top jaw. “Let’s put these numbers into a meaningful context.

Writing on his blog in 2010, Stanley Coren PhD said, They picked a topic on which people have been sceptical for some time. They say they chose the literature on the strength with which a dog can bite for several reasons, including that this is a salient figure that jumps out at people and is remembered, and that the literature was large enough and easy to assess for accuracy. Gary Patronek ( Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University) et al traced citations in the literature and went back to the original sources to investigate the truth of the published statements. But what if it’s not true?Ī recent paper by Dr. Have you ever read comments about the strength of a dog’s jaw when it bites? These statements are often made in relation to certain types of dog, like pit bulls.

Pitbull bite force psi