No more or less dangerous than anything else.

by Anthony Arnold
(New York)

I happen to own a beautiful red-nosed pit bull who is going on 4 years old now. My family absolutely adores him and treats him like royalty.

There hasn't been a single incident in those four years where he has so much as barked wrong at any member of my family. The only time I can recall him ever being violent or aggressive outside of protecting my family from strange people is when he risked his life years ago to fight a dog much larger than himself to protect a litter of kittens.

My family used to own a Golden Retriever, one of the kindest and most family-oriented breeds in existence. However, this dog had originally been raised in a household in which he was treated like dirt. This eventually led him to attack my brothers and father. He was euthanized when it was discovered that he was not able to be rehabilitated.

Put into another term, my parents once owned an animal when I was but a baby. His name was Clydie. Clydie was a mix between a coyote, a wolf and some terrier breed. Clydie, who was a mix of wild animals was no more vicious than a newborn kitten. He was a great family pet and was only put down when his ancestry was discovered by government officials.

A dog is only as vicious as he is trained or treated to be. Some dog breeds may be more CAPABLE or more ABLE to inflict violence, such as the German Shepherd or the Pit Bull. The pit-bull's jaw muscles are so strong that they literally lock the jaw in place when the dog is biting and fighting, however, they have a conscious control over this action and not once has my dog ever locked his jaw during our many play-fights.

It is not the breed that is violent, but the up bringing. Deal with it. I could train a chihuahua to kill babies if I so desired to, and could train a tiger to give babies rides on its back.