Pit Bulls that are human aggressive have not been kept as pets either...they’ve been bred, trained and usually mistreated (starved, feed glass shards in their food, beaten and tortured) until they will attack anything. Any breed, or any other animal, will do the same under those circumstances (as will people, check the pedigrees of some serial killers). The reason Pits are singled out for this “training” is due to their muscle mass and their extreme obedience and tenacity. In the UK, Pits are known as “Nanny Dogs” for their watchful eye over the family children, Helen Keller had Pits as service dogs, they are used today as search and rescue, cadaver, and therapy dogs. The most decorated of all Military dogs was a Pit Bull. My own snuggle bunny might lick a burglar to death - that’s the amount of his aggression.
Pits do exhibit animal aggression – of course my childhood collie (i.e…Lassie) killed dogs and other animals that ventured too far onto the farm. Gee, lets ban the evil collies next!
Pit Bulls are terriers – not some mystical spawn of the underworld.
I have seen 5 stories this week on Pit Bull maulings. Please show me the 5 stories of Collie maulings you have seen this week.
It’s true that many other dog breeds are just as prone to attacking as pit bulls. However, pit bulls have extraordinary jaw strength, which has been deliberately bred into them, and which is unmatched by any other breed except possibly certain individual dogs within certain types of mastiff breeds. The amount of damage pit bulls can inflict is much, much greater when they launch an attack with the same intent/mindset as another breed.
There’s only so much that training and good treatment can accomplish. Years ago, a young couple I knew who were very well-educated and responsible, both bankers, bought their first home and decided to get a Rottweiler (female) in addition to the black Lab they already had. They got it from a show dog breeder, took it to many weeks of obedience training, certainly never mistreated it or allowed it to be mistreated, and thought everything was fine. About a year later they had a houseguest staying for a few days. The couple and their guest were in the family room watching TV, and the guest decided to go out to his car to get something. As he came back in the front door, the dog snapped at him, breaking the skin on his arm. Yes, the owners were able to stop the attack at that point, but if it had been a pit bull, and gotten a hard grip on the arm, it might well have broken the arm and/or ripped away a chunk of flesh, and even with the Rottweiler, things could have been a LOT worse, if the owners hadn’t been right there to intervene. The dog apparently mistook the returning guest for an intruder, even though the guest had already been staying at the house for a couple of days, and went into attack-and-destroy mode. Without the authoritative voices and presence of the owner, it would very likely have continued and escalated the attack.
You said pitts are not human aggressive but I have been told by vets, dog trainers and others very familiar with dog behavior, that dogs often do not recognize a small child as human. They are on eye level with small children and see them either as prey or as competition.