One of the big problem with pits is the "Status symbol" crap that seems to follow them with some crowds. I'm a veterinarian, my wife is a veterinarian--a boarded specialist. We own pits. The thing is they are house dogs you don't see outside unless we are with them. My 76 year old grandmother owned a pit for several years. Again, you never saw the dog unless she was outside with Clowy. I know doctors, lawyers, politicians, police officers, fire fighters, television personalities---all respectable members of society who own one of the "pit bull" breeds be it English Staffies, American Staffies, APBT, Bull Terriers or American Bulldogs (yes I know there are others too that fall into that generalization).
I also used to run a reasonable sized pitbull rescue a few years ago and I've worked as a cruelty investigator for Animal Control. I will not lie and say I've never encountered a human aggressive pitbull, but those dogs are few and far between. I don't know how many of you have every worked at a human society where all of the pits had to be euthanized for the simple reason they were pitbulls, but it flat out sucks. Of all of the dogs, the pits are the ones that will always lick you in the face and wag their tail right before they fall over dead as you are injecting the Beuthanasia solution---always.
Some of the absolute most horrible cases of animal cruelty I've ever encountered have been with pitbulls. From dogs where the owners chopped the front legs off with a hatchet and then let two other dogs attack it as the dog bled to death, to administration of drugs ranging from anabolic steroids to benzodiazapenes to off the wall bullshit like feeding gunpowder--which literally eats out the stomach lining of the dog, often times killing it.
Its a sad state in the US that the citizens are so stupid they buy into media bullshit---and thats what I think most of the pitbull attacks we hear about are. People are bitten every day by dogs in the US. Some counties in the US have mandatory "bite report" laws in that the healthcare workers who deal with patients who present with dog bites have to report that bite to the county health authorities and animal control. I also know for a fact that there is one city in Ohio where the only dog bites that are not fatal that are reported in the paper are those by pitbulls. All other breeds are ignored (again if they are not fatal attacks) because they are "not newsworthy" unless its a pitbull. Pits may get front page coverage because they "sell papers". I blame Dateline, newspapers, and other media sensationalism for much of the closeminded ideas that people have about these breeds. I've got to the point when someone tells me they "hate pitbulls" I ask them why. Have they ever been bitten by one? Have they ever even seen one? Could they even identify a pitbull if they had too----and as a side note that is something that many, many animal control regulations do very, very poorly as a result of the idiocy associated with the city councils responsible for passing stupid breed restricting legislature. The online "Is it a pitbull" test is a very, very good one if you ask me.
The bottom line is its the responsibility of the pet owner. Only an idiot leaves a small child with a large dog and doesn't watch the dog---it doesn't matter what breed the dog is. You never know when the kid is going to do something like poke the dog in the eye, which may provoke a defensive bite that really isn't the dogs fault at all. If you want to end dog breed related problems, you need to make the owners take responsibility for the dogs, not let them use the dog as a disposable means of income/status like so many do. As a pitbull owner, I can say I'd do jail time if my dogs injured someone unprovoked---I know they won't, I've used my olderfemale as atherapy dog in the past and the puppy is in training now, but I can say it because I'm a responsible owner who isn't going to let their dogs get into a situation where something bad can happen.
