For example, take a pitbull. So many people have this dog as a pet. The dog was bred to create a ferocious fighting dog that gets tossed into a pit with another pitbull and they fight until one is killed.
As the owner of a (partial) pit bull, I have to take this opportunity to educate people. Although pit bulls do have a recent history of often being selected by idiots who force them to participate in dog fights, dog fighting is
not in the breed's historical roots.
The
pit part of their name dates back to when the dogs were used in a sport called ratting. The dogs would be placed in an actual pit with a number of rats. The more rats the dog killed in a certain amount of time, the better it scored. This was at the same time when the bubonic plague was a great concern, so having a pit bull (or any other small prey-seeking dog) around was a serious survival aid.
They are eager to please their masters, can be very strong-willed, and are muscular. Pit bulls were
not engineered to fight, but these qualities mean they can be and have been trained to be tenacious fighters.
Any dog can injure a child under the right circumstances. It's up to the owners to make sure those circumstances are avoided. You have to know your animal.
Ok, so here's the requisite pic of my dog, Sunny.
