So one of the dogs was Shanklin’s and the three pits belonged to the meth-cooker whose trailer was on the property.
You have to read between the lines here...
Poor doggies.
Its not their fault that animal abusers are so over overwhelmingly attracted to their breed.
When an untrained setter or pointer goes out and hunts for and finds game birds on their own, points the birds for a time, and then tries to catch them, well, it's pretty entertaining and those dogs are just doing what they were bred to do.
When the untrained retriever breeds will instinctively fetch anything someone will throw for them, and sit around just waiting for someone to throw something, it's a lot of fun and they're just doing what they were bred to do over the centuries.
But when humans are viciously attacked by pit bulls, mauled and even killed, why, it has nothing to do with the breed and is solely the fault of irresponsible owners who abused the dogs to make them vicious against their basic instincts.
Actually, the pit bull's ancestry includes dogs bred and trained to actually fight other humans in combat with their ancient owners, and dogs trained as guard dogs that attacked trespassing animals or humans. And dogs trained to do this:
In baiting events, no more than one or two dogs were unleashed on the bull. They were trained to unrelentingly harass the bulls until they collapsed from fatigue, their injuries, or both. These episodes lasted for prolonged periods, sometimes as long as three or four hours. Eventually, the public's grew bored with bulls and introduced a creative flair to the sport, baiting dogs with bears, boars, horses, and even monkeys!
Pit bulls that maul and kill are doing exactly what they were bred and trained to do over the centuries, just as pointers point and retrievers retrieve. Here's an interesting history of the breed:
Those dogs that attacked and killed the seven year-old boy did what their ancestors often did: they attacked a stranger who'd come into their territory.