"Their only requirement beyond being able to fight, is being moderately controllable enough for the owner to retrieve him, treat his injuries and tie him back out in the yard."
That is incorrect. The dogs are not to be moderately controllable. When the dogs were fought, you could not have a "moderately controllable" dog. A moderately controllable dog will become dangerous in a heated situation. He would not be able to control himself properly and would cause harm to the handler. It is imperative that any dog showing any human aggression to be culled(humanely removed from the breeding program) immediately. Human aggression can be removed from the gene pool through these culling practices throughout many, many years.
You mention Schutzund. No pit bull should ever participate in this activity as it opposes the essense of the breed and destroys what has been developed. There have been debates on www.game-dog.com concerning this issue. If you were to investigate, you will see that the majority absolutely opposes any Schutzund work or anything that will cause the breed to exhibit any human aggression. It is completely and utterly unacceptable. Once again, any pit bull that exhibits human aggression is not worthy of the name.
The reason that you have pit bulls attacking people is because of improper breeding standards and raising. Any dog, regardless of breed can be dangerous, if it is raised to be. Sadly, with the overwhelming popularity of subpar representations of the breed, we have irresponsible owners raising these dogs to be human aggressive. This is because of their lack of knowledge of the breed. Many believe that the breed is supposed to be human aggressive and they purchase the dog for that reason and abuse the dog when it loves them to death. I wonder where these people would get the idea that these dogs are supposed to be human aggressive?? Maybe the media????
However, dogs can be bred without aggression to humans in the same way that prey drive is bred into the gene pool.
As for kenneling pit bulls; it is impossible. You can not kennel a pit bull. It will break out of that kennel before you can blink. Then what you will have in your hands is a yard full of fighting pit bulls.
You also mention something about temperment testing "confuses the issue to try to make them into pets". The truth is, pit bulls make great pets, if you have a complete knowledge of the breed and know exactly what you are getting into. All of my dogs have been "pets" and I have never had a problem. The problem is, they are a status symbol now and everyone wants one. They get the dog without any idea of the breeds personality. They are very energetic and can be a handful if their energy is not properly redirected. Many people do not understand that the dogs will be animal aggressive regardless of their upbringing. Then they freak out when it attacks the neighbors collie. These are the main reasons why shelters are filled to the brim with pit bulls.
With all due respect, no animal that will be aggressive no matter what it's upbringing is a great pet. Most people should not want a dog that will kill if it ever gets loose. But I do appreciate someone else knowledgeable about the breed who will at least validate the opinion I've held for some time... That I feel for the beasts, but pit bulls are innappropriate as pets for most people. The headlines about maulings only punctuate that fact.