My semi-informed advice is to ignore both the designation (bear, dog, human, etc.) and the statement of the percentage of oleoresin capsicum in the spray. That percentage figure can swing wildly from 1% to over 20%, but it really doesn't tell you much because it doesn't measure the relative "heat" index, the Scoville Heat Unit measurement. Not all sources of capsicum are the same, and judging by volume just doesn't work. For example, I have a two-ounce canister of Fox "Five Point Three" stream-delivered OC. It states 2% oleoresin capsicum and 5.3 million SHU. I've seen "bear spray" stated at 18% OC but less than 2 million SHU. I'll take the former.RPB wrote:I had the 10% bear spray back before sprays were illegal and were "just a food product" and soon afterwards, Police carried 5%.
The more a product talks about the percentage of OC in its spray and avoids the actual SHU value, the more I'd be wary of it.