[sammyg2]

All breeds of dogs can bite. All breeds of dogs are capable of attacking people.

I'm pretty sure everyone can agree with that.


When different breeds of dogs attack, the results vary greatly.

A small toy breed like Pekingese or shih tzu can bite, and can break the skin. But that's pretty much the extent of it in all but the most extreme cases.

A pit bull terrier was designed and bred to combine and maximize strength, aggressiveness, viciousness, and the ability to keep fighting and attacking until it kills.
Those are the traits needed for fighting dogs.
Just like greyhounds were bred to run fast.

Those are facts and no knowledgeable person would dispute them.

Pit bulls at their core are gentle loving dogs, just like all other domesticated breeds. But in there somewhere is still that capability, that tendency to fight and kill.

A golden retriever is bred to have a "soft mouth".
IOW is is designed not to bite down hard so it doesn't destroy the bird it retrieves. It can bit down hard, but usually does not. It is "not in it's nature".
A golden might bite but will not rip your face off and sever your spine and rip your throat out.
Pit bulls can do those very things and do those things on occasion. They may not be more likely to attack than other breeds, but when they do attack the results are exponentially worse.

Other breeds considered more dangerous than others include rottweilers, german Shepherds, dobermans, akitas, and chow chows.

Take away the emotional knee-jerking and look at it rationally and logically and those are the conclusions that we land on.

Pit bulls were created by breeding bulldogs and terriers together to produce a dog that combined the gameness and agility of the terrier with the strength of the bulldog.[3] In the United Kingdom, these dogs were used in blood sports such as bull-baiting and bear-baiting. These blood sports were officially eliminated in 1835 as Britain began to introduce animal welfare laws. Since dogfights were cheaper to organize and far easier to conceal from the law than bull or bear baits, blood sport proponents turned to pitting their dogs against each other instead. Dog fighting was used as both a blood sport (often involving gambling) and a way to continue to test the quality of their stock. For decades afterwards, dog fighting clandestinely took place in small areas of Britain and America. In the early 20th century pit bulls were used as catch dogs in America for semi-wild cattle and hogs, to hunt, and drive livestock, and as family companions.[3] Some have been selectively bred for their fighting prowess.[5][6]

Pit bulls also constitute the majority of dogs used for illegal dog fighting in America.[11] In addition, law enforcement organisations report these dogs are used for other nefarious purposes, such as guarding illegal narcotics operations,[12][13] use against police,[14] and as attack dogs.[15] On the other side of the law, pit bulls have been used as police dogs.[16][17]

In an effort to counter the fighting reputation of pit bull-type dogs, in 1996 the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals renamed pit bull terriers to "St. Francis Terriers", so that people might be more likely to adopt them.[18] 60 temperament-screened dogs were adopted until the program was halted, after several of the newly adopted pit bulls killed cats.[19]

In a 2000 review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which examines data from both media reports and from The Humane Society of the United States, pit bull-type dogs were identified in approximately one-third of dog bite-related fatalities in the United States between 1981 and 1992.