Jennifer Bristol recently lost one of her oldest friends—thanks to a Facebook fight about pit bulls.
The trouble started when she posted a newspaper article asserting that pit bulls were the most dangerous type of dog in New York City last year. "Please share thoughts… 833 incidents with pitties," wrote Ms. Bristol, a 40-year-old publicist and animal-welfare advocate in Manhattan.
A recent study looks at rates of overweight and credit-card debt among heavy users of Facebook and concludes this group tends to have less impulse control. Elizabeth Bernstein has details on The News Hub. (Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
Her friends, many of whom also work in the animal-welfare world, quickly weighed in. One noted that "pit bull" isn't a single official breed; another said "irresponsible ownership" is often involved when dogs turn violent. Black Labs may actually bite more, someone else offered.
Live Chat Recap
Elizabeth Bernstein spoke with readers on October 2 about abominable online behavior.
Then a childhood pal of Ms. Bristol piped up with this: "Take it from an ER doctor… In 15 years of doing this I have yet to see a golden retriever bite that had to go to the operating room or killed its target."
Online Etiquette
Why Texting Turns Us Back Into Teenagers
He Texts, She Tweets—Are They E-Compatible?
That unleashed a torrent. One person demanded to see the doctor's "scientific research." Another accused him of not bothering to confirm whether his patients were actually bitten by pit bulls. Someone else suggested he should "venture out of the ER" to see what was really going on.
