I've noticed a lot of animals will earn nasty reputations when they don't really deserve it. Me I apriciate life in most forms. When a creature that pretty much likes to keep to itself gets demonized or is demonized do to the actions of humans I become rather upset. Any way here's my list of most demonized animals from least to most. 5:Bears 4:Pitbulls 3:Spiders 2:Snakes 1:Sharks
Not everyone is afraid of bears, heck some people will keep em as pets or feed wild ones. Yet many people see them as these big bad monsters that would kill you as soon as look at you, these people are what I like to call ignorant. I think this comes from the fact that bears can be pretty grouchy and rather territorial. Accompany that with the fact that they can very easily kill a person and it sort of makes sense that they would be demonized. I put them lowly ranked on the list because it makes sense why people would be afraid of them and they aren't all that dispised.
Pitbulls. Born and breed killing machines that love attacking anything in sight without reason just because they can. This is actually a common belief. Pitbulls are very strong dogs with a helacious bite. That is why many people raise them as attack and or guard dogs. Since so many people raise them that way and so many of them grow up living that way it's understandable that they would become aggresive. In my experience however they are often very sweet and gentle animals. I have a pet pitbull and he is very sweet and always wants to play. I know two other pitbulls, one of which will try to crawl under people's feet to become a foot rest, and the other who belonged to a now deceased family friend only wants to be petted. I met only one aggresive pitbull and that one came from the home of dog fighter who got raided by police and sentenced to prison. Even that pitbull wouldn't attack anyone outright, He only bit lightly if someone got to close and he couldn't run away.
Spiders are pretty much just a nusence to me. There are SOOOOOOOO many around where I live but any of them that get in the way are harmless. The only ones here that could do any real damage aren't all that common. Black Widows pretty much keep to themselves and their webs are pretty easy to spot. Even if I were to get bit by one it wouldn't be that big a deal. Since the power of their venom and amount they use would only be enough to kill a small child or a an allergic person I wouldn't even need antivenom. A brown Recluse bite when untreated can cause infection that will inevitably kill if the person doesn't have strong immunuties, but we don't live in the stone age, we have medicine. One trip to the E.R. and I would be fine. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of nasty spiders that are aggresive and deadly, but that doesn't mean we should every one of his species no matter they threat they pose to us.
Snakes: This one is similiar to spiders, actually I only placed snakes higher on the list because they're less of a nussence to me. See plenty of snakes could kill somebody on a whim, but most snakes won't. How many snakes in North America can kill someone before they could get medical attention, alright maybe a few, how many snakes waste their venom on passerbyes, not so many but it can still happen. See a baby Rattlesnake is actually more dangerous then an adult because they have very little control over their venom, an adult is likely to drybite in self defense. For those not familiar with a dry bite it's when a snake bites but injects no venom. I'm sure people can have good reason to kill snakes in other regions, most people don't in North America.
Sharks could kill a person on a whim, they could snap down on your body and tear you to shreds, I mean they're basicaly dinosaurs. They have the power to kill, and there is little you could do if one had the intent to make a meal of you. Now also consider that sharks don't really think much of humans. They pretty much are content just wondering around and leaving us alone. Never the less sharks are killed and hated. If you want to start debating about how many people get killed by sharks, why don't you go look up how many sharks get killed by people? Compare the number of sharks in the sea to people in the world and the percentage goes up even higher then that. Are sharks dangerous? Yes. Are they going to eat everything you love while you sleep? Probably not.
So that's my list. If anybody has anything to add then please feel free. If there are any creatures you find too often demonized please share. If you disagree with any of my statements just remember I'm not disagreeing with the fact that these creatures could easily kill (Well depending on the person) and I'm not trying to debate that, but these guys aren't as dangerous as they are often made out to be.
Still has anybody else heard about how sharks are moving further inland and getting more aggresive. So now your only slightly More likely to get struck by lighting than eaten.
No; that's a statistical fallacy. Many people don't surf or even live near water inhabited by sharks. The high incidence rate can be attributed to the high probability of surfers being mistaken for seals, and the popularity of surfing in those regions.
People are mainly afraid of these things because of fictional movies and literature. Horror stories and movies featuring sharks, spiders, etc. always portray the "worst case scenario" when in reality the chances of such a thing happening are slim, if not impossible. Combine that with the fact that all five of these animals are capable of killing a human results in an irrational fear, ultimately backed up by a movie or a book.
If I'm not mistaken, that is exactly the whole point of this thread. He isn't suggesting that these creatures are friendly, cuddly, and/or harmless, but that they are misrepresented as mindless killing machines and wrongfully despised as a result.
I would add to the list big cats, non-domesticated rodents, and crocodilia.
