[intorkercet]

I think OWNERS are more dangerous than DOGS in general.

That right there sums it up the best, its the owners who fail the dog not the dog failing its owners.

To the OP, I think the whole stigma surrounding the fighting heritage of the dog is what gives people the impression that they are bad ass dogs. What most people do not know is that even though the dog was bred for its ability to vanquish prey the dog in itself was not bred to harm humans. People hear the fighting part and just assume that the dog has to be a killer in order to fight, that is clearly not true at all and that is the main reason why the wrong croud end up getting an APBT. When they find out that the dog is not naturally mean that is when they force it onto the dog. That is where and how unstable dogs are created, you cannot force the dog to what is not natural to it without reprocussions, reasons why the ones that really are mean do bad things. Its more of a self fullfilling prophecy really, those who bought them to have a mean bad ass dog create the menace they thought of them to be which goes against everything the dog was intended to be.

As to why I own them, I grew up with them, we had a farm and these dogs can excell at many things and farm work is one of them.

They are great dogs but I agree and say it often, they are not meant for everyone. Lots of research should be done on whatever dog you open your house up to, if I didn't want a digger I wouldn't own a Jack Russell Terror. Same rule applies, if i didn't want to handle the prey drive of a terrier I wouldn't own one, after all thats what terriers are.....they are prey driven dogs.