I have a rescue pit bull - Simon - he found me at a Bart station - came running up with the biggest pit bull smile on his face. He was 20 pounds underweight, un-neutered, and pretty scarred up. Our vet thinks he may have been used as a bait dog.

Anyway, he's now neutered, knows lots of tricks, and is about the sweetest dog I've ever met (I grew up with big dogs - alsatians, dobermans, mastiffs, danes, etc. and he's the sweetest of the bunch). He's wonderful with kids, cats and humans - a goofball who loves everyone he's ever met. We NEVER take him to dog parks or let him loose anywhere but in our own very well-fenced back yard because even though he has several doggie pals, he doesn't like all other dogs unconditionally, and it is totally and completely our responsibility to never let a situation develop between him and another dog.

Having known Simon and many other pit bulls, it makes me so angry and sad to think what has been done to individual dogst o make them turn on people - aggression towards people is completely outside of the "breed norm". Unfortuntely, dog aggression is part of the breed, and owners have to be aware and responsible about it. Here in Oakland there is a terrible epidemic of back yard breeding and irresponsible ownership of pitbulls, and the dogs are being used as some sort of male-member-extender. It's such a sad situation.

For anyone who is interested in pitbulls, there is a great pit bull rescue and informational organization called BAD RAP (http://www.badrap.org/rescue/index.cfm). Beware - VERY cute pictures!

I think for most people, once they meet a well behaved, well socialized pit bull, they never look at the breed the same way again. But I agree with karen - I'm afraid we will start to see breed specific legislation and possibly even an outright ban, and as long as there are criminally negligent people with dogs that maul children, it's hard to argue against such drastic measures.

Whew! Sorry - I had no idea when I started that I was going to write such a long post!