I liked your post.
My family has always owned ‘bully breeds’: Dobermans, German Shepherds, Great Danes, Boxers, and now I own 2 rescues that are half pit bull.
We are all still alive and kicking. We handle them responsibly, but unfortunately not everyone does this. I see this as the owner’s fault, not the dog’s.
I agree. It could very well be kids going by the yard tormenting the dogs until one day the dog gets a chance at payback. Is the dog or dog owner really to blame or is it the tormentors? You may be talking about people who intentionally make their dog mean though and for that; those owners should be locked up because that IS intent to harm. I knew a mean old guy years ago who kept his mean Rottie with him in his Jeep when he went out. I guess it was to protect the Jeep and let people know they should not mess with him. One day he came home and found his mean dog has ripped open his son's scalp needing hundreds of stitches and leaving a horrible scar. The owner had the dog put down and something in him seemed broken. He was a changed man. He found out it wasn't so cool to keep a mean dog around. Basically it was a bomb just waiting to go off at an unknown time. I think we can all agree dogs like that are unfortunately not much good for anything except maybe to roam the junk yard at night and even then a lawsuit might happen due to it.
There are lots of breeds that should be considered carefully to be around family and children in general; especially small babies. I think most of us can agree on this one point.
On a personal note; my Pit-Mix is the smartest most mothering dog I've ever had. She always takes a new dog to the family under her wing to show them the ropes. She will train a new puppy to be house trained in one day. One rescue who was 8 yo at the time was kept outside all the time so she wasn't house trained. My Pit-Mix trained her without being mean in just a couple of hours.
The point is not all Pit's are created by God to be the same way. Like people; some are better than others and some are more malleable than others. To be on the safe side I prefer my dogs not interact with people I don't trust completely; even those I know. One acted differently after I had some people over one time. I think she was kicked. It's people I don't trust. Dogs on average are better than your average human - by far in most cases. Humans are devious and much meaner. Just look at some of the posts in these Pit-Bull threads for proof or even worse; abortion threads. Nasty.