Yup, no dog is naturally "evil".
Some just take special precautions.
And of course a lot of people who choose pits as a pet are macho asshats who also tend to treat them rough to make the dog mean. This of course makes all pit owners look bad, even the responsible ones like yourself
An intersting snippet from the following site...[/DIV][A href="vny!://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html"]vny!://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html[/A] [H4]The dogs that are most responsible [/H4] Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, has conducted an unusually detailed study of dog bites from 1982 to the present. (Clifton, Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, September 1982 to November 13, 2006; [A href="vny!://www.dogbitelaw.com/Dog%20Attacks%201982%20to%202006%20Clifton.pdf"]click here[/A] to read it.) The Clifton study show the number of serious canine-inflicted injuries by breed. The author's observations about the breeds and generally how to deal with the dangerous dog problem are enlightening.
According to the Clifton study, pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes are responsible for 74% of attacks that were included in the study, 68% of the attacks upon children, 82% of the attacks upon adults, 65% of the deaths, and 68% of the maimings. In more than two-thirds of the cases included in the study, the life-threatening or fatal attack was apparently the first known dangerous behavior by the animal in question. Clifton states:
[BLOCKQUOTE] If almost any other dog has a bad moment, someone may get bitten, but will not be maimed for life or killed, and the actuarial risk is accordingly reasonable. If a pit bull terrier or a Rottweiler has a bad moment, often someone is maimed or killed--and that has now created off-the-chart actuarial risk, for which the dogs as well as their victims are paying the price.
[/BLOCKQUOTE] Clifton's opinions are as interesting as his statistics. For example, he says, "Pit bulls and Rottweilers are accordingly dogs who not only must be handled with special precautions, but also must be regulated with special requirements appropriate to the risk they may pose to the public and other animals, if they are to be kept at all."
