I'm not saying anything to the contrary lol.

I'm just commenting on the OP's grief at having been cussed out after threatening the dog owner's pittbull with a bat.

and if your kid ran up to another kid yelling, and someone brandished a bat at it? You'd be cool with that, "oh shit, my bad, should have been hanging onto my kid at all times. you had every right to wave a bat at him/her in this situation."

yea if my kid was built like a fucking bull and had canines and the ability to kill the other kid within a few seconds...

I don't think you're being honest and when was the last time you heard of a dog killing a person, even a little kid?

According to CBC news, there have been less than 30 dog related fatalities in Canada in the last 21 years..

Since Canada isn't the only place on Earth here: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7853330

Dog killed a baby a few months ago.

In our community, a couple months ago a "friendly" off-leash dog charged a 92 year-old neighbor, knocked her down and broke her hip. She died of complications. And if there were no recent fatalities I still wouldn't take any chances. The costs of being wrong far outweigh the costs of being wrong other way.

god only knows

My dogs are never on a leash, and they never leave my side unless I tell them too. But hey, thats just me... not everyone puts in the effort to train their dog.

you want statistics? here you go: http://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/dog-attack-deaths-maimings-2010.pdf

Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada
September 1982 to June 25, 2010

368 deaths during that period and for 166 of those pure bred pitbull terrier were responsible, 73 rottweiler, 21 husky and 19 wolf hybrid plus 10 mixes of those

and "hear, hear" all you uncritical pitbull lovers:

There is a persistent allegation by pit bull terrier advocates that pit bulls are overrepresented among reported dog attack deaths and maimings because of misidentifications or because “pit bull” is, according to them, a generic term covering several similar types of dog. However, the frequency of pit bull attacks among these worst-in-10,000 cases is so disproportionate that even if half of the attacks in the pit bull category were misattributed, or even if the pit bull category was split three ways, attacks by pit bulls and their closest relatives would still outnumber attacks by any other breed.

and to confuse you even more here is something from the analysis:

Pit bulls are noteworthy on the chart above for attacking adults almost as frequently as children. This is a very rare pattern: children are normally at greatest risk from dogbite because they play with dogs more often, have less experience in reading dog behavior, are more likely to engage in activity that alarms or stimulates a dog, and are less able to defend themselves when a dog becomes aggressive. Pit bulls seem to differ behaviorally from other dogs in having far less inhibition about attacking people who are larger than they are. They are also notorious for attacking seemingly without warning

What are you supposed to assume then? If any type of dog runs out at your kid growling I think you would have to be an idiot not to assume hostility (especially if its a dog thats associated with aggression, whether its valid association or not doesnt matter). You dont know if the dog is nice or not, and just because the owner says "hey bro its cool shes nice" doesnt mean shit when the dog is showing obvious hostility to your kid.

Aww, posting flawed data as evidence to your arguement. How cute!
I bet you think pitbulls have lockjaw too, right?