A periodic media staple is the “dog bites human” story, which often translates into telling us how awful some breed or breeds of dogs are and we should probably ban the breed.

But context matters. People kill other people far more often than pit bulls (or any breed) does. But when we see the dog bites someone story, we don’t see any context.

This post circulating on X could be viewed as inflammatory as it singles humans by “race” (which is more of a nebulous concept that most realize). However, according to Grok AI, the estimates are approximately correct.

Grok AI says these claims are basically correct.

(The following is mostly Grok AI output but has been editing, added to and modified by me.)

The numbers are largely accurate based on the specific sources and assumptions used, with some important caveats on estimates and interpretation.

Pit bull fatal attacks (2025)

• Independent trackers (primarily Animals 24-7, which compiles media reports) recorded roughly 64 U.S. (or U.S.+Canada combined in some tallies) fatal attacks involving pit bulls/pit-bull-type dogs out of a total of ~82–84 dog-attack fatalities. This is consistent across multiple 2025/early-2026 summaries from that source.
• The 18 million population figure is a higher-end estimate seen in some advocacy, DNA-testing, or veterinary analyses that broadly define “pit bull-type” dogs (including mixes). Other estimates from shelter surveys, industry data, and rolling averages put the figure lower, commonly in the 4.5–7 million range (5–8% of the ~90 million U.S. dog population).
• Using 64 deaths and 18 million dogs yields ≈0.36 per 100,000, as stated (64 / 18,000,000 × 100,000 ≈ 0.356). A lower population estimate would produce a higher rate (roughly 0.9–1.4 per 100,000).

Breed identification in media reports has known limitations (visual IDs can be inaccurate), and these are absolute counts of rare events rather than a rigorously population-adjusted risk study. Overall dog-bite fatalities remain low relative to the total dog population.

I used to have malamutes – a dog that a surprising number of people thought was a wolf or a wolf-dog. I’ve also met actual wolves and wolf dogs – but most people do not know the difference.

Similarly (see Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classifications in America by Prof. David E. Bernstein, JD), identifying “race” of humans is much more complicated than you might think.

U.S. homicide victimization rates

• Recent BJS data (NIBRS-based, mainly 2023) show a Black rate of about 21.3 per 100,000 and a White rate of about 3.2. These align closely with the image’s ~21–22 and ~3.2–3.5 figures.
• Broader CDC/mortality data for similar periods often show somewhat higher Black rates (e.g., mid-20s in some 2023 reports) and White rates in the low-to-mid 3s. Overall U.S. homicide rates have been declining from earlier post-2020 peaks.
• The other group rates (Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander ~6.5, Hispanic ~6.3, American Indian/Alaska Native in a range, Asian ~1.4) are consistent with the well-documented disparities in recent official statistics, though exact year-to-year and source-to-source figures vary slightly and some smaller groups have wider confidence intervals.

The comparison

Mathematically, using the stated inputs, the pit-bull fatal-attack rate is far lower than the listed human homicide victimization rates for every major group (roughly 60× lower than the Black rate, etc.). This holds under the high-end 18 million population assumption. Absolute numbers of both dog-attack deaths and homicides are small relative to the relevant populations, and the two phenomena are not directly equivalent (different causes, risk factors, denominators, and reporting systems).

Key limitations: Population estimates for pit-bull-type dogs vary substantially; breed attribution relies heavily on media/visual reports; homicide data come from official vital statistics/law-enforcement systems with their own coverage differences; and single-year figures (especially 2025 dog data) can fluctuate. Longer-term patterns show pit bulls/pit-bull-types consistently overrepresented in fatal dog attacks relative to most population estimates, while overall risk of fatal dog attack remains very low.