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I am not a pit fan or defender...but I do know the press. Many children are mauled by ALL kinds of dogs, even little ones regularly. You generally do not hear about that because it doesn't fit the "pit bull is evil" storyline for the press.

The great irony is, the more the press runs these kinds of stories, the more folks who have no business owning dogs buy them to make themselves look tough and intimidating. The press is actually CAUSING more people to be hurt through their own irresponsibility. If the press wanted to make a difference, they could start promoting, I don't know, FISH as the ultimate bad-a@@ pet.

When he was a kid, my husband was mauled by two German Shepherds which were the "intimidation dog" of the 70s . Dobermans were the intimidation dogs of the 80s and Pits are the intimidation dogs of the 90s. I vote for Poms to take over at this point. One of my bosses was so torn up by a client's psycho Pomeranian (Oh you frightened my poor little darling...) he had to get stitches in his chest. If that dog was bigger and stronger, my boss would have been dead.

My point is simply that ALL dogs are dangerous because they are not humans despite our inane tendency to anthropomorphize. We do neither ourselves or our dogs any favors when we forget that and buy into the media hype.

And by the way...I love our family dog (she's a black lab/Aussie/something mutt) with all my heart. But I don't trust her much. ;-)

Excellent points. Some of us are paying attention to facts, and others seem to be caught up on stories. Interesting to note that the news is here to report unusual or rare incidents. If these dogs were all really dangerous, there would be millions of deaths a year instead of less than 20, and once it gets to that point, it isn't media material because it's fact. The longest news stories have always been about a drama which seems to draw out conjecture instead of absolution.