I knew that this was going to be a pit bull hate thread just by browsing the headline in the feed last night.
You are the only one I’d engage here on the topic. A lifetime of observations:
With one exception, every pit bull I’ve experienced - a total of around a dozen - have been the sweetest, smartest, most loyal and protective dogs I’ve ever met. Never a bite or attack against anything that wasn’t a threat. In contrast, in both work and otherwise I’ve personally been attacked by no less than a half dozen dogs, bitten by 2 that weren’t my own, one of which is a breed stated as beloved and safe here at FR. My own dogs over the years - almost exclusively Dobermans and German Shepherds (but no pits, so zero bias) - presented more problems than any pit I’ve encountered, but we worked through them with a couple of exceptions.
Additionally, absolutely everyone I’ve known has never had an experience which differs from my own and in most cases like the OP story of attack there are mitigating factors.
The one exception for the pit my experience was a case of abuse and neglect.
Yes, I read the OP article: It contains not a single detail of the conditions which led to the attack, a trend mirrored in all such media reports exhibiting bias on all topics, including the jabs.
Furthermore, my observations over the years - ironically - outline that in every one of threads such as these, the bias exhibited mirrors that of jab defenders/promoters.
I am not disputing how pits were originally bred, but I dispute the characterization of such attacks by pits as ‘instinctive’.
It’s simply not scientific, nor are calls to eliminate the breed.
I have not encountered many pits personally, so do not have a lot of personal experience with them. The plethora of articles about pit attacks and the severity of the damage done by them does not present a positive view of the breed when they do go over the edge.
The dogs I have had the most experience with as far as aggression, however, is the little ankle biters. The difference is one of those can be drop kicked across the room. That makes them far less of a risk than a larger dog that would be much more difficult to defend myself against.
That said, about the only dogs I don’t have any concern about being attacked by is Goldens. Every thing else I just keep an awareness about around me.