You hear so much in the news about pit bulls vs. any other breed b/c these dogs are so much stronger and deadly. They may or may not attack any more often than other breeds, but you can get away from other breeds w/less damage.

One problem with this breed is that there is a HUGE group (majority maybe?) who buy this breed b/c they WANT the image that the dog represents and then they make the dog live up to the image. Dobermans used to be the same way. Not all, but a lot of people who buy these breeds do so b/c they want a scary dog. Unfortunately these dogs are raised poorly, without knowledge of what the breed needs and those are the one's that make the news. It is sad!

First of all...............I've noticed the Pit Bull Icon for WRAL...........is generic........like a sunshine or a lightning bolt for the weather. I'd like to replace it with one of my dog........a good dog. Jack was 2 in December......he is loving and innocent. He's 85 lbs, so he can be a bit rough when he plays......but he would NEVER hurt anyone or anything. He loves all children and dogs.....and is especially gentle when its a young/small one of either. He's been with us since he was 5 weeks.....he is treated like family......'cause he is. You can chain and neglect any type of dog and make a bad one.......just don't forget to also avoid any affection or love. It sickens me that Pit Bulls get such a bad rap. It ain't the dogs......its the people who are raising them. So they should be the ones getting lethal injections.

Y'all bring up some very good points, but you are forgetting one thing... a well-bred pitbull (and that includes GAME-BRED because they are the ONLY well-bred pits) will not, under ANY circumstances attack people. Thirty years ago you never heard of a pitbull attacking people, because, people, it just didn't happen! The reason so many people are being attacked by so-called pitbulls today, is because, simply, they ARE NOT bred right. The REAL dogs of yesteryear were fought, yes, they had to be. A pitbull would not be what he is (or is s'posed to be?) to be today if it wasn't for the dogmen of yesterday. Louis Colby, Howard Heinzel, Earl Tudor, Al Brown, Con Feeley, Floyd Boudreaux... I could go on and on...

How many people of you out there right now, the ones who supposedly LOVE these dogs have even HEARD of these names? If you don't know the history of the breed, you have NO business owning them. And if you condemn their gladioter past, you know even LESS about them.

I Live in a small town outside of Rocky Mount called Enfield and there are a number of people in my hometown that have pitbull dogs. I love dogs in general, but the breed called pitbull just sends chills down my spine because i have three children and where we live we are surrounded with people that have this particular breed of dog. I personally don't let my kids play outside unattended because I know that people in my neighborhood have this breed of dog. I am very much afraid that this may happen to one of my children, so i feel that parent's pain most definitely. I have an english bulldog mixed and she is very protective of me and my kids, but I still don't trust letting my kids play outside because of pitbulls in my neighborhood. I feel that something should be done in my town about the pitbulls because ALOT of people including young people who I feel don't know what a dangerous breed of dog they have.

And in over 7 years working with animal i have only been bitten twice. A rotti which was sick, my fault on that one, and a yellow lab, which was one of the most aggressive dogs i have ever dealt with, not to mention it was off its own property, it went for my face and luckily i put my arm up in time. Trust me when i say that there are far more bites that arent pitbulls. And in my opinion pits are abused more often that other breeds. Its a shame that people out there would like to see pits become extinct, we arent talking about dinosaurs here, we are talking about a life of a pet.