Their aggression has generally been bred out of them, and I understand the French bulldogs are even taught to fly white flags. Many lines of pitbulls have also been cooled, i.e. Petey from the Little Rascals. They just rarely make the headlines as they don't sell much copy.
These two pits seemed to primordially remember how to "Bull Bait" after Katrina. They were shot by a Guardsmen.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/what_happens_when_dogs_attack_a_bull
Best line on the thread so far! [^))
This breeding of aggression in and out of dogs is one of the reasons I, like you, think banning the breed is the wrong solution. I totally understand and identify with the passion behind those who want the breeds banned, but I think banning is a very poor solution. There must be a better way to solve this problem.
Another reason is one you so eloquently detailed in a previous post, about the young gal living out in the country and needing the dogs for protection. People should have that right.
Then there are the folks who have no business owning pit bulls. In my immediate neighborhood, two homes have pitbulls, and BOTH of those homes have jokes for fences and are THE poorest, most ill-kept, lowest income in this very defined area, and their residents are ... well, shall we say adolescent in attitude if not in age. I don't know what to do ... because I would come unglued if all the sudden any group, private or government, started cherry-picking and judging who is worthy of "powerdog" ownership and who is not. Just because someone isn't tidy with regard to their yard, or drives a work-in-progress 70s Camaro with half the body covered primer for the past year and a half, doesn't mean they aren't deserving of the same rights I am. My attitude is live and let live, and if I don't like the way a neighbor keeps his person or his property, tough cheeps, unless that neighbor physically endangers me or my property in the process.
As you know, my preferred solution is to be able to openly and legally carry a firearm with which I can shoot a dog loose on public property if I think it poses a threat. But that ain't going to happen in my lifetime. My personal experiences indicate that the chances of me or someone I love being attacked by a vicious dog in my lifetime are considerably higher. So in defense of my life, if I have to take to breaking the law ... well, it won't be the first time!
A few years ago, I read stories of how cops in Compton or some other low-income slum 'hood here in So Cal, were suddenly finding carcasses of pit bulls dumped in concrete river channels and other out-of-the-way places where they'd be removed by nature or garbagemen. Some people assumed it was folks getting rid of dogs that had been killed in pit fights. Me, I think the neighborhood had a manly good samaritan who was taking it upon himself to save human lives. That's what my dad would do in the same situation. Just kill the damned things where they posed a threat. Shoot, shovel, and shut-up, minus the shovelling.