Surrounded by 8 pit pulls today, I barely escaped with my life

[Evoman]

79. I'm so torn about this subject.

On the one hand, I love dogs and have met so many beautiful, good pitbulls. On the other hand, I've seen the innocent victims of maulings (I even pet the "bad pitball" while he was in quarantine where I volunteered...I wasnt scared and he was a sweet heart, even though he mauled someone. Sigh. One of the saddest days ever.).

I'm a scientist....a geneticist/molecular biologist. And in my understanding of the literature, genetics can have a huge effect on both the psycholical and physical make up of the dog, both which cause their own problems. Psychologically, these dogs were bred to fight...and you can't tell me Pitts aren't aggressive when some smaller animal or dog sets the off. They can be great dogs, but there is a hidden instinct in those genes that comes from years of selective breeding. That wouldn't even be so bad if we didn't have the other genetics aspects....the sheer musculature and strength of the dog and it's jaws. Little runt dogs can have agression problems, but they aren't a double threat that pits can be. In my opinion, I wish we could stop intentionally breeding dogs....those itself create even more genetic problems in many breeds.

So what to do about Pitts? I don't think we should ban them or kill them. But we do have to maybe consider making their breeding illegal. They should be converted back into Pitt mutts.....if you are gonna breed, try to breed them with smaller, less aggressive, less powerful dogs. We don't need fighter dogs. Your average sized dog is more than up for the job guarding you. We need to take measures to make sure people that sell these animals are not selling them to thugs or idiots. Not sure how you go about doing that, but it's probably necessary.

I love dogs, and that includes pits. But I always try to be careful that my love and emotions don't cloud what I see is a true reality....and that is that Pitts can be dangerous. They can be, and we need to accept it and deal with it in some manner. how? That's the tough part.