This year, a Chow-chow tore a little girl to shreds. Last year, a French woman became the first recipient of a face transplant because hers was ripped off by a Labrador.
The stats are out there. Pits are no more likely to bite or kill than most dogs. They're below the average for German Shepherds, and Spaniels lead the pack in snap-bite reports.
Pits don't have that BS "lock jaw" thing, and don't have more pressure per square inch than any other dog, and in fact less than some.
They *do* have a tendency to not let go. That's species-specific, but often means they don't inflict as many bites as other breeds will.
Where the whole "killer dog" myth comes from I'm not sure - Pitbulls used to be literally "The All-American Dog", posted in propaganda posters in WWII (when pot was not just legal but required by law for the war effort), advertising, movies and serials before that for decades.
I own a pit bull. He's not even neutered yet, and he's a sweetheart with babies, cats, humans, you name it. He hates bigger dogs, but all dogs do...
Not quite dismemberment, but
http://www.wboc.com/story/10769319/g...-poodle-attack
That's from a first page Google search.
Poodles aren't the same as "miniature poodles" btw - which can be sonsabitches in the bite department, but rarely fatal - and are quite scary especially when they're groomed. They look so cute. I was 10 my sister was 8 when we were attacked by regular (cute pom-pom fucker) poodles - but we managed to make it to the other side of their fence - which they bit and tried to tear at like horror movie dogs.
A three-year old was recently annoying and teasing my pit with something - a sock or a scarf or something, and he just lay on his back and grumbled - arrr fucking kid arrrarrrooh - but a very docile Dalmatian I had took a meaty chunk out of my friend's stomach at a hyper kid's birthday party when I was young...
Disney and the real world don't always jibe.
There's no denying their power. If I'm not attentive, my dog can decide that *this* spot *must* be sniffed and when he stops I end up yanked - in winter once, I ended up on my ass because of the ice.
A couple times my dog was caught in a literal bite-fight with another dog, both times because their idiot owners didn't have them on a leash. They "trusted" their dogs. So we end up in a tug-of-war trying to pull apart these dawgs with their jaws on each other - very powerful, no denying it.
:D