It's called backlash, and some of it is justified.
"It is at this point that everyone starts yelling at each other and pointing fingers. My pit bull, someone says, plays with my children every day. He's the cutest, most affectionate pet we've ever had. Pits are no more aggressive or dangerous than beagles. That's not true. According to a study by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, covering the years between 1979 and 1994, pit bulls were involved in 57 fatal attacks -- well over twice the number for the next breed on the list, rottweilers, with 19, and more than German shepherds (17), huskies (12) and malamutes (12) combined. A 2000 study by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association concluded that pit bulls "were involved in 65 fatal attacks between 1979 and 1998 ... twice that of rottweilers and more than three times German shepherds.''
That much is true, and very, very disturbing.
But that's just part of the story. If you've been to an animal shelter lately, you know that it seems like half the dogs there are pit bulls. Naively, our family thought that was because families were not adopting them. Actually, it is the result of a population boom in pit bulls. ..
I was at my county shelter this weekend, and I think there were 5 dogs out of maybe 50 that weren't pits, pit mixes or Rottweilers.
it is important to report incidents of menacing or intimidating behavior by dogs in your neighborhood to animal control.
That much would do a lot to prevent serious attacks. Too many people downplay the 'learning' bites that typically precede a dangerous bite.
In the meantime, if you encounter a pit bull or a rottweiler, keep an eye on it no matter how often its owner says it is the sweetest little pup you've ever seen. That's especially true if it is a "rehabilitated'' dog, which has supposedly had its breeding curbed by good training.
There's your backlash. It's anger, and it's being generated by the 'my way or the highway' attitude pit people have toward their issue. Any suggestion that pits are more dangerous than other breeds is dismissed with scorn and ridicule, leaving many people with no place to go if they have seen a pit bull attack or have reservations about the CDC stats, but are unwilling to say "ban them all." If the pro-pit, anti-BSL crowd keeps to the current attitude that the only reason for the fighting breeds' reputation is that the rest of us don't love them enough, they're ignoring the fact that as the breeds become more common, more and more people are going to witness an attack by one - yes, one that's undoubtedly badly owned and handled, but still, one that makes it clear that an attack by a pit bull is not equal to an attack by a Cocker Spaniel or a Labrador. When a critical mass has been reached of people who have first-hand experience of a bad pit bull, then you're going to see real problems erupting between dog people and everyone else - and between dog people.