I know these two dogs and I would feel very comfortable with them being around a child. But people who have well trained animals (Of all breeds) do not have these problems. If an animal with a good disposition is raised in a caring, loving home, these things do not happen. We also own a pit bull who is a sweet loving dog. He has never shown aggression to humans and listens well to commands. I will say it again, it was because of the environment in which he was raised!! People must be willing to train their animals and protect them. Our dog is never off his leash when he is outside our fenced in yard. We do that to protect him from others. We are smart owners who care about what happens to our animals and the kids. I do not understand the hate for these animals.
OK so your dogs are probably harmless. But doesn't almost everyone whose dog bits someone think the same way? So what's your solution to the dog bite problem. Massive fines or jail time for the owner? Fines usually don't work, because a large fraction of the owners have no assets. Jail time?
One person suggested that insurance companies drop coverage. OK now you're the injured party when someone else's dog attacks you and you run up $70,000 in reconstructive surgery bills. You sue, and OOOPS they don't have any money. They don't have any equity in their house, but the judge allows you to put a lien against it. Big Deal. They go merrily on, you have to pay, and you have a lien against their house; you might collect something when they sell, but meanwhile you have had the pain ind injury and had to bear the expense too.
A non dog related typical neighbor. I say this only to relate how people regard their injury of other people and others' property. I came home one day and my neighbor (since moved) greeted me in my driveway. Since he never spoke to me otherwise, I wondered WTF? The first words out of his mout were "I talked to my lawyer and I'm not liable" HUH? It turned out that a limb had fallen out of his tree and done some damage (not a lot) to my deck. He then said I'll help you clean it up ( mighty generous of him. I went out with my chainsaw and told him OK let's clean it up. He said I'll be right back and went into his house and hid until I cleaned it up. I dragged as much as I could into his driveway so he'd have to move them to get his car out. Point being that unless forced people will not take responsibility for their torts.
If. IF. That's a VERY big if and pit bulls donot to tend have good dispositions.
I do not understand the hate for these animals.
Then you're living in a fantasy world and not even bothering to read the posts or look at the pictures. Just because SOME pits with the right dispositions can be raised to be gentle, the conditions for it are so extreme and rare that in general, it's just not going to happen. The breed as a whole does not have the *right* disposition and all the rest of the pits raised in any other environment are disasters waiting to happen and they do. Even so, some of these *gentle, wouldn't hurt a flea* type still snap on occasion.
The amount of training and control these dogs require to try to make the less of a hazard than they are is ridiculous. It's a real indictment of the breed. Any dog that has to have it's aggressive nature so throughly and consistently trained out of it just does not deserve to be around.
And yes, the responsibility lies with the owner to a great extent, but some welfare deadbeat who literally has nothing to lose if his dog mauls or kills someone, doesn't care. Lack of insurance means nothing if you don't own anything.
Training is crucial.
Any dog can be annoying and a menace if untrained. Combine untrained with uncontrolled and a menace becomes seriously dangerous.