Originally Posted by kane

I know pits don't bite as much as other dogs, the problem is when they do it is nasty. I have a friend that has a little wiener dog and that little shit is mean. It bites everyone. But it is just a pinch and doesn't hurt much (although it could do damage to a small kid). Small dogs bite a lot, but pits fuck people up.

I just found a study online that showed results of a 20 year study of dog bites that resulted in deaths. Pit bull was number 1 by far.

Here were the top 5
1. pit bull - 66 deaths
2. Rottweiler - 39 deaths
3. german shepherd - 17 deaths
4. husky type - 15 deaths
5. malamute - 12 deaths

Another study showed dog attacks/bites that resulted in maiming from 1982 to 2006. Pit bulls accounted for a total of 1110 bites with 608 resulting in maiming which was three times as many as the next closest dog the Rottweiler.

Here are a couple more interesting stats: 77% of dog bites are from a family or friend's pet, and 50% of attacks occur on the owner's property. In 59.3% of dog bite cases the dog was reported as being docile and friendly before the attack.

Also the thing I read said a large number of dog bites happen to kids and occur when they are playing with the animal and that the face is the most common target for the dog.

What I am getting at is that I understand a lot of how a dog behaves falls on how the owner trains it. If a person has a pit bull and they work with it and give it an outlet for its energy and control it well, chances are it will never bite anyone. Whereas someone who chains their dog up and barely speaks to it and when they deal with it do it in an aggressive manner are more likely to have a dog that bites. Still. I would never own a pit bull (and I have had friends that have had the dogs and they were very friendly and playful and were great dogs) especially if I had kids. All it takes is the kid to do one thing wrong for that dog to turn on them and things can get very ugly quickly. A pit bull has the tools to do a lot of damage very quickly, for me that risk just isn't worth it.

To me it is like this. If you go swimming in an area where you know there are sharks, you can't be surprised if you get bitten.