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I was being sarcastic in my original post in this thread and I purposely left off the /s tag, and probably shouldn’t.

The fact is, that if you say that this behavior has nothing to do with pit bulls as a breed, then what you are saying that breeding means nothing.

You are saying that sheep dogs aren’t better for herding sheep, that sled dogs aren’t better for pulling sleds, that bird dogs aren’t better for birding... and on and on down the line.

Pit bulls were bred to kill. Period. They are a killing machine, just as a sled dog is a pulling machine. Just as a sled dog has a heart that is many times stronger than the average dog, to help it pull long distance, so do pitt bulls have jaw muscles that are many times stronger than the average dogs, so they can lock on and not let go. And, of course, its not just the jaw muscles. There’s a behavior component.

I hate the nanny state as much as the next person but I do believe in zoning laws. It’s fair to zone residential property so that people can’t raise pigs and chickens in their back yards, is it not? It’s fair to zone against the keeping of wild animals, such as chimps and lions, is it not?

Well, in the same way, I think it might be worth considering for some individual communities to have zoning restrictions against pitt bulls. It’s just a thought.

It's odd that many so people who are so skeptical of the media when it comes to every other topic, show such blind faith on its accuracy when it comes to correctly reporting the breed in dog attacks. The fact is, pretty much any dog with a blocky head and loose jowls is labeled as a pitbull by the media. Most "journalists" can no more tell the difference between a boxer, a mastiff and a pit than can accurately tell an automatic from a semi-automatic firearm.

Pitbulls simply aren't the hyper-aggressive breed they are made out to be. "Breeds scoring low for aggression included Basset hounds, golden retrievers, Labradors, Siberian huskies and greyhounds. The rottweiler, pit bull and Rhodesian ridgeback scored average or below average marks for hostility towards strangers*." (emphasis is mine)

Details of the study cited in the article can be found here. (*Graphs starting on page 10 illustrate different types of aggression. Oddly, basset hounds and springer spaniels were found to be more aggressive toward their owners than they were toward strangers and other dogs.)

I stand by the notion that the fault lies more with bad owners than it does with "bad" breeds. Zoning restrictions won't stop a bad dog owner from moving in next door to you. It would just mean that he would have to choose a different breed and five, ten years from now that breed will be the next monster-du-jour in the press.