I'm a dog lover, so since you said this post was for dog lovers, I'll bite...
Pitbulls can be great dogs. I've seen it first hand. I've also seen the other side.
A relative and her husband owned 2 pitbulls for several years. They always 'educated' all of their friends and family about how gentle and easy going dogs they could be if raised in the right environment. They referenced all of the books and other information about breading and raising pitbulls as family pets. They certainly appeared to be correct, the dogs were well behaved and lots of fun.
They even had kids a few years after the dogs, and the two pitbulls were great family dogs. They seemed to watch over the kids, and seemed protective.
Years went by, the dogs got older and gentler, everything was great. Then one day the kids (now about 4 or 5) were running in the yard and one of the dogs lost it, damn near ripped the kids face off. After that the dogs were 'never right'. They seemed on edge, ready to fight. 6 months later, the tragedy climaxed when as a family together they took their beloved pets to the vet for the last time, to be put down.
The dogs are dead, but the girl will be scared for life.
I don't care what any dog handler or breeder says. There is simply no way you can change the traits that result from tens of thousands of generations of breeding by 'raising it right'. There are hundreds of kinds of dogs because man has been breeding them for hundreds of different tasks for thousands of years. Each dog was bread for a specific task. Some dogs are herders, some dogs are family pets, some dogs are for security, and some dogs (unfortunately) are for fighting.
The pitbull was bread for fighting. There is tens or even hundreds of thousands of generations of breeding to get the animal you see now. There is absolutely nothing you can do in one generation to take this instinct out of the dog. You might think your dog is different, its gentle. You may even get lucky and never have a problem. But you are playing with a loaded gun, and once you pull the trigger there might be nothing that will stop it except breaking its jaw or killing it.
I don't care to have an internet argument, so this is the only post I'll make. Take it for what its worth, I've heard all the arguments for owning pitbulls, this is just my opinion. BTW my relatives happened to be very religious, they never listened to the 'thousands of years of breeding' argument. I guess they figured all dogs were the same, God just made them all look a little different.
