No animal develops something that serves him no purpose. Not now, not ever, its completely against how nature works.
I agree with the part hat they are often trained to be deadly, but i`ll disagree with both the fact that they have a not so powerful bite and the fact that they have neck + bite to lick my hand or catch the stick i throw. Common sense please.
If i evolve to grow a gun sticking out of my chest in the near future, chances are i kill someone.

you are forgetting the human hand in dog breeding...for god sakes look at a chihuahua and realize nature hasn't been in control of dog breeding for a very long time.

You're the one lacking common sense. Just because you don't understand how a dog bite works doesn't make my point any less valid. When humans chew their food, we move our jaws up/down, back/forward, and side to side. This gives us incredible chewing power over just up and down. Pitbulls do not have that ability, they can only chew up and down, this gives them extremely limited ripping capabilities. To counter this, dogs have adapted themselves to bite and shake their heads violently. This is essentially the same function as human chewing, except the dog is using it's neck. Pitbulls have stronger than average necks meaning they have higher than average potential for destruction. Their bite though is not all that strong, german shepards and rottweilers both consistently bite harder than pitbulls, even though dogs in general have weak bites. (Compared to other animals like say, an alligator)

As psycho- said, pitbulls are not a natural evolution. They were bred by humans to exhibit certain characteristics. You saying you are going to evolve a gun further proves the point, it is a choice, not a result of natural selection.

now we are getting somewhere

"aggressiveness" (as a general characteristic) is clearly an accepted feature of the breed

and it also says:

Aggressive behavior toward humans is uncharacteristic of the breed and highly undesirable.

how do you interpret that in a breed standard?

first of all it tells you that aggressive behaviour towards humans is not unknown for the breed
and secondly it does not disqualify the dog from shows or breeding
"highly undesirable" just implies that the dog will get a lower score

thank you for supporting my point

how many other breeds do have any mention of any aggressiveness in the breed standard?
not sure, but there will not be many
(i checked for rottweiler, siberian husky or dogo argentino and no mention of any "aggressiveness" there)

note: forgot to check on the ukc earlier, only looked at the akc which does not have a standard for "american pitbull terrier" and neither is there an international standard because the usa are not part of the fci

ya lets just interpret things any way we want. when it says its uncharacteristic of the breed that means the breed itself is NOT aggressive to people because of its breed. any dog is capable of aggression towards people regardless of breed and i can guarantee they only put that in there because of jackasses like yourself claiming the breed itself is aggressive towards people.

Ok, you're spinning the lack of information in to information supporting the opposite.

For biters, Chows are known to be one of the most aggressive dogs known. They are fiercely loyal to their owners and have been known to bite with no warning.
Rottweilers are an extremely athletic dog most often trained to be guard dogs. This makes them highly prone to attack strangers interacting with their owners. (Dogs often misread our faces and voices of happiness as aggression)
Papillions are just as bad as chows when it comes to single owner possessiveness.

I would say overall that a pitbull is no more likely to be aggressive than a boxer or a mastiff.
The only dog I can think of though with a rep almost as bad as a pitbull with be a doberman pinscher.

Dobermans really did have genetic issues that caused them to become extremely violent, due largely in part to poor breeding. They are one of the only domestic dog breeds known to have genetic aggression issues. Back in 2000 or so, they started genetic screening for many of these problems and dobermans from any reputable breeder today are clear of any potential genetic disasters.

To restate, pitbulls are not known to be aggressive dogs. They are just an extremely common breed used in dog fighting because of their immensely powerful necks and muscular physique. I would much rather be face to face with an unknown pitbull than an unknown great dane.

you have a tendency to be just insulting
does that come with the affection for a breed known to be potentially dangerous?
if there weren't an issue with it it definitely would not get any mention in the breed standard
get real man and take the blinkers off

That's because half-educated morons keep spreading the same lies about them over and over.

Nice to see that there's no limits to what you'll comment on while being completely ignorant.

lol i honestly dunno how to get past his layer of stupidity. he refuses to admit hes wrong even when he says to look at the breed standard for pitbulls and it says plainly its not characteristic of the breed to be aggressive towards people.

getting really tired of dealing with someone who believes myth over fact.

in case your are able to think logically (which unfortunately is something missing for many on pard) what does providing a link which gives some statistics (biased or not in your opinion) have to do with knowledge of dogs?
you did not provide any link giving statistics but rather a partisan site which tried to discredit the findings on that site by providing some additional information on a few cases which in no way contradicts the overall finding of the website i linked which clearly stated it's method which is not perfect but you find a site which provides better information on dog attacks
come up with a site we both can consider credible giving statistics on dog attacks over a number of years
until then i have to assume that any statistic will just confirm the overall findings of the site i linked
and another link you can chew over http://www.dogsindepth.com/terrier_dog_breeds/american_pitbull_terrier.html

good with kids?

supervise. young children should always be supervised around large and/or powerful dogs. purchase from an ethical breeder and discipline and socialize early

doesn't that raise the idea in your mind: "seems there are unethical breeders of that breed around"
and what do those dogs do which are bred by one of those breeders
(note: checked a few other breeds which are potentially dangerous and there was no mention of that)

how do you discern on the road if a dog has been bred by an unethical breeder before it starts misbehaving?

but i guess you will just put it down to prejudice against the breed because only american pitbull terrier admirers know the truth about dogs

This post was edited by brmv on Apr 5 2011 08:23pm