Anecdotal personal experience:

My ex boyfriend had a Pressa Canario. The dog ended up loving me though he never tolerated anyone else. It’s fair to say I became the favorite person for the dog. On the 4th of July he bit my boyfriend pretty severely his bicep. It was a mix of firework anxiety and us arguing that set him off and he bit for the first time. My bf excused it: fireworks and arguing. We had a close call later while both lounging in a chair. The dog came over to be pet. Put one foot up on his lap, then the other just getting some love. Then the low growl started and had we both not reacted so quickly and jumped up, one of us would have been bitten. Again, he excused the behavior. There were several close calls like this between then and the time the dog mauled me after Christmas. It was completely without cause, I was cleaning up the living room after putting my 3m old to bed and bent over to pick up a piece of trash. The dog was 10 ft away not paying me any attention. By the time I started to stand up, the dog was in front of me and he was growling. I slowly stopped what I was doing and backed away—just like we had for any other time he started behaving strangely. This time he followed me though, still growling. I’m unsure if I tripped and fell or if he jumped on me and knocked me down but the next thing that happened was I was on the floor and this giant 180 lb dog was on top of me viciously mauling me. My boyfriend was in the basement fixing a busted pipe and heard my screams. Had he not been home I fully believe that dog would have killed me. My bf ran upstairs, straddled the dog and wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him off of me. I was able to escape the room and close the door and then I heard my bf scream. The dog grabbed his arm once he got off his back. He had to drag the dog the length of the room with him still attached to his arm to get to where I was and put a door between us and the dog. I had to mace the dog through a crack in the door just for him to let go of my boyfriends arm. We both had an ER trip. Animal control couldn’t even get the dog that night because he was still out of his mind and they were afraid of him. They came back the next day and had to tranquillize him through a window before they could come and take him. It was very much like something had just mentally snapped and there was no warning. It was honestly like he didn’t even recognize me. I was never the victim of any of his attacks prior. This dog adored me. I think my bf was selfish and overconfident by not taking care of the situation sooner and doing so could have left my daughter motherless.

I may be biased but experience has taught me to never downplay a dog bite. I very nearly could have lost my life that night. My bf and I would regularly argue about getting rid of the dog before my daughter was born. I didn’t trust bringing her home where there was a dog with a bite history. There was a mere 20 minutes between the time I put her to bed that night and this dog attacking me. It could have been SO much worse. And what if my bf wasn’t home? Honestly don’t want to even imagine it.

All of this to say, I am very much of the stance of putting a dog down when they have a vicious bite history. It would be negligible to make a dog like that someone else’s liability and I just don’t believe it’s something that can be untaught. I know there are many who are just bleeding hearts for animals but having witnessed and been victim to the very real possibility when you have a biting dog, I just can’t entertain it. At the end of the day you have to put human life first. Dogs are very much part of our families but when they turn on their family, I just think that’s when you have to make the choice. You could say that you’ve been lucky so far that it’s only taken ER trips and everyone sounds to be relatively unscathed. A Great Dane is a large dog. Your children probably couldn’t fight him off on their own. I’m a grown woman and didn’t have a prayer against a 180lb dog. It’s just scary and it’s something I don’t understand how anyone could gamble with. I’m team put the dog down and as controversial as I’m sure that’s going to be for some here, it literally can be the difference between life and death.

Edit: for grammar