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If you will not write off a whole breed of dogs, you have not spent enough time around dogs.

Shepherds do not need to be taught to herd. Retrievers do not need to be taught to retrieve. Pointers do not need to be taught to point. Fighters do not need to be taught to fight.

These are innate behaviors. You can't stop them.

There's a reason pit bulls account for such a large fraction a dog related injuries.

And don't let the pitbull defenders get to you with their "but it's a mutt" or "they're such sweet dogs" BS.

Of course they're going to be nice to their owner. People who train and breed dogs to kill each other for entertainment are going to have no problem immediately bringing the dog that pisses them off out back and shooting them.

Everyone I know who has been bit by a dog it was either a pitbull, pit mix, or chihuahua. And I'm not exactly worried about the severity of a chihuahua bite.

If I were to be attacked by a dog the last one I'd choose is a pitbull or any muscular mastiff. They're dangerous because they have the highest potential for damage.

What's there to be leery about? These dog breeds were bred for one thing and it sure wasn't to be the perfect family dog.

I don’t write off a whole breed,

I can. They are a non-natural breed created by people for cruel purposes and should be eradicated.

About 15 years ago I volunteered with a pitbull rescue, then did a bunch of research on pitbull attacks in grad school. The problem then was that most statistics like this were unreliable once you saw what they labeled a pitbull. In most cases it was just any "mutt" was considered a pitbull. I don't know if things have changed, never really looked into it since then, but I'm still a bit wary of stats like this without knowing their data is accurate.

And it's probably worse if you do rate by breed.

But I suspect that it's mostly due to a combination of breed and neglect/non-training. The kind of people who want a pit bull in particular, and the kind of people who just chain up their dog outside and never train or socialize it, probably have significant overlap.

And the dogs too?

I don’t doubt their temperament is fine

Pits have an incredibly strong prey drive, and once they decide to attack something they almost never stop. So no, they don;t have the best temperament.

Pugs should be banned as well

There's at least a retro-pug movement now that is working to breed the overly shortened snout out of pugs, and make them a healthier breed.

if governments weren’t capable of doing more than one thing at a time, all of global civilization would collapse.

Edit: different terminology… but bullyism is a thing so I’m gonna leave it up.

Bullies are a genetic anomaly that aren’t just pitbulls. For example, Wendy is a somewhat famous bully whippet:

Most responsible breeders don’t allow for pairings that would create it. Mostly because if they get too excited they have heart attacks- their heart can’t keep up.

It should be banned, but not because it makes dogs more violent than they otherwise would be.

Basically it comes from over breeding for muscle mass. It crops up in racing breeds mostly- whippets and greyhounds. But also, apparently, in beef cattle:

I mean it sounds like just the one, American XL bully. Seems perfectly reasonable to me given how ridiculously powerful these dogs are makes them extremely dangerous when they’re being aggressive.