*sigh* Here's my .02 on the situation:

ANY animal, not just dogs, can turn on an owner. Domesticated or not, you see animals that have "never displayed any signs of aggression", that one day just decide they've had enough. It's always a big ****ing deal when a pit bull does it because they have a LOT of negative connotations being thrown their way, and there are people out there who want to believe that they are the root of all evil when it comes to canine behavior. I was watching the news down here the other day, and a dog had bitten a kid... They showed pictures of the dog, and it looked like a lab... floppy ears, thinner nose/face, about 1.5" long hair... If I saw it walking down the street, I would have assumed it was a lab. On the news, they were all like "It's believed the dog is a pitbull mix." The next day, the owner of the dog called the station/newspaper bitching them out... the dog wasn't a pitbull mix at all. The apartment complex that the dog lived in doesn't allow pits/rotties/dobermans/etc because there are a lot of kids there.

If a border collie bites someone, then no one hears about it. A pit bull bites someone, it's all over the news. It sucks, because they're great dogs with a really bad rap.

And it is only recently, too... 10-15 years ago, you didn't hear a new story every night about a vicious, bloodthirsty pit bull who had gone on a rampage. If they even made mention of a dog bite/attack, it was just that... a DOG. Now, a damn poodle could bite someone and they would say "It had a squared off face which means it had been crossed at somepoint with a pit bull". People blame this stuff on pit bulls because they want an explanation... people don't like to think that the dog that they snuggle with at home every night is, at its roots, an animal that at some point in time had to kill to survive. They don't want to think that their golden retriever might one day bite the hand that feeds, so they pick a dog that was originally bred for fighting and pigeonhole it.

And all you guys who are saying their "natural order" or whatever... how many regular bulldogs do you hear about attacking people? Bulldogs (yes like the UGA mascot) were bred for bullbaiting, just like pits were. Why is one dog getting the bad rep?