People are nuts!
You stated that put up a $7000 fence that emcompassed an acre of rural Alaskan property and mentioned it's hilly topography. Anyone with a lick of sense knows that an area fence surrounding an acre of uneven terrain is not going to keep any animal that wants to cross the fence from doing so. You allowed your regstered, purebred Golden Labrador bitch, that you knew was in heat to be outside unattended. You also had foreknowledge that you neighbors had a male Pitbull that you claimed was on the loose.
Despite this you took no precautions whatsoever and turned your dog loose. Then you came to this board and went on a rant about what lowlifes your neighbors were. And that is putting it mildly.
You claimed that you had been a lifelong dog owner, yet you demonstrate little common sense and "dog knowledge" about how to keep a bitch in heat from being unintentionally bred. If you are so "dog knowlegeable", you would have known that a bitch in heat will attract males from great distances. Once the male gets the scent, no perimeter fence will keep him out. As a "responsible" and "knowlegeable" lifelong dog owner you should have known that and either crated or kept your dog inside, out of reach of any males. Living in rural Alaska, you are lucky that you didn't attract a male wolf to your yard especially as you have children.
The impregnation of your dog was your responsibility. Even if the neighbors Pitbull was contained by a fence or tied up, once "tempted" by the smell of a bitch in heat, little was going to stop him from breeding her short of your keeping her unreachable. But then you are a lifelong, responsible dog owner, right?
And as a supposedly knowlegeable "lifelong dog owner" why didn't you know what to do immediately when your bitch was "accidently bred"? You had to come to this board for the answer?
Somethin' doesn't smell right.
As to the nature and positive attributes of Pitbulls, I stand on what I posted. As I stated in my original post I have had Pitbulls and Pitbull mixes for over thirty years and never have had any trouble with them whatsoever. I certainly have never had what was a good dog, mysteriously go bad. During more than thirty years as a rancher, I have owned too many dogs to remember the number.
Regarding the attack on the 80 year old woman, I think if all the facts were known you will find that these dogs were owned by irresponsible owners. On the face of it, the article says that the two Pitbulls were kept in an apartment and were used as watchdogs. Not pets- watchdogs! The mere fact that these people kept two dogs in an apartment should tell everyone something about their quality as dog owners.
Also keep in mind that in dog attack cases, what turns out not to be a Pitbull, is frequently initially described as one.
The question should arise as to the necessity of two watchdogs, when one would do. I would be willing to bet-the-ranch that the owners (the granddaughter and her live-in boyfriend) trained their "watchdogs" to protect their apartment from anyone that might dare enter and that didn't include licking them to death.
If all they needed was a watchdog to warn them of intruders, then a small, apartment sized dog would fill the requirement. But these two needed two Pitbulls?? There is more to this story.
Dogs are what the owner makes of them. Even Pitbulls.