I hate these dogs with a passion. I’ve told the story before how 2 pit bulls came onto our farm and attacked our sheep, tore 3 up bad enough I had to destroy them. Our ultra-huge male Great Pyrenees dog came on scene and quickly killed one pit bull and nearly tore the rear leg off the other. The owner of the pit bulls and raises them about 2mi. down the road,could care less. I won’t hesitate to shoot them on sight. My 8yr old granddaughter often walks among the sheep, and I shudder as to what would happen to her, or my wife. We now have 6 Pyrenees and maybe 300 sheep, cattle n horses.
Kidding aside you are right. It is one thing to be raised a certain way, but these variants - it is hard to identify the “breed” - often carry a mental illness which makes them prone to astonishing violence.
What is more they switch to extreme violence at the drop of a hat and without many, or ANY of the tell-tale cues, and are strong enough to do massive damage VERY quickly.
As a former trainer I have many stories to tell, and the reason I tend to gravitate to these threads (will someone please tell me why folks get zotted for participating in them?) is I want to warn Freepers about this wild breed / variant. They can and DO kill pets, livestock, kids, and adults.
Some “pits” are nice, but MANY are not, and they switch from “nice” to “deadly” faster than you can imagine. I suppose it’s like guns: treat ‘em all as if LOADED, moreover, treat ‘em all as if LOADED and PRONE TO MALFUNCTION.