Tami, I have a number of friends that are cat people. I won't hold that against you.
In fact, I admire your acknowledging you limits about being able to control active/large/aggressive/etc breeds of dogs. More people should do that. 
Pat, I totally understand your feelings. I wish I had the right answer. Nobody really does.
Janet, well said. In particular about dogs having shown previous signs of aggresion. The attacks we see and read about on the paper DO NOT HAPPEN OUT OF THE BLUE!!It's people's inability to read their dogs, OR a refusal to believe what they see as being a danger signal. "OH MY, I just didn't think my baby would do that".
I'd like to talk a little about the Pitbull as a breed. I HATE DOGFIGHTING PERIOD!! However, the old time dogfighters bred for a quality called gameness. It had NOTHING to do with aggression. It was the ability/desire to continue the fight even though the individual was getting it's butt whipped. When my dad was a kid in the teens and 20s, many people had and fought pitbulls. They were very popular then. AKA The little Raskels dog Pete. The people that fought these dogs had to be in the ring with the dogs. Dogs that were "man aggressive" were very much frowned on, and other owners often refused a "match" if the other guy had "Man biters". True game bred dogs are very soft/passive dogs around people. Gameness has NOTHING TO DO WITH AGGRESSION.
Enter the late 70s, early 80. Gangbangers began controling the drug trade. "Pit bulls are tough dogs." "We can make lots of money fighting them, and we can make guard dogs out of them".
The idiots that stuck to fighting them know about gameness. The other idiots though a mean dog is a better guard dog. (The beginning of the end) "Lets breed Bubba's nasty tempered dog to Lamont's bada$$ dog". The up and comming kids in the hood see these people making lots of bucks with thes bada$$ dogs and they look soooo kooool. Now everybody starts cranking out Pits in their back yards. ANY breed subject to this total lack of quality control will start producing dog with both health and temperment problems. I mow the 30 or so acres of common ground in my village. I can count DOZENS of pits in backyards when I mow. The breed numbers have exploded in the past 20+yrs. There are to many people that have these dogs for the wrong reason. Should we get rid of the breed? Then we need to get rid of booze. HMMMMM seems we tried that. It only created more problems. Well, lets get rid of fast, powerful cars. Lots of people get killed by fast cars. OK, how about guns. Everyone knows guns kill thousands every year, even though most of the people I know have grown up with guns all their lives, it must be guns that are creating the problems. SMOKING, hell, even the tobacco industry admits those things are harmful. Where do we go folks? Is it the dog or the dogs idoit owner? Is it the fast car, or the idioit who drive it carelessly? Is it the gun, or the idioit, irresponsable owner that has no idea what gun safty means? Is it the cigarette or the person that chooses to put it in their mouth? Ok if you don't inhale though
.It's all about the right to choose. Unfortunately, many people don't choose wisely or responsably, be it dogs, cars, guns, drugs, yadda, yadda, yadda! Human nature being what it is, this will never change.
I don't think banning a particular breed will accomplish a thing. We have dog laws now. We have speed laws now. We have gun laws now. We have drinking laws now. We have smoking laws now.
I personally think more people should be spayed and nutted.
Oh my goodness......the whole time I was reading that I thought to myself.."Gee...I wonder if OED meant this to go in the Pet Forum"? 
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