I can't believe I'm even going to say this, so for the record, let it be know that this is stupid to even get involved in, OK?

Here comes the rant!!
ALL dogs have the potential to cause serious harm, both to other dogs as well as to humans. Take a look inside Fifi's mouth. Those teeth? They're not for chewing grass! They're designed to tear and shred meat. Sorry, that's the fact. ANY dog can be turned aggressive or dangerous, most likely as a result of irresponsible human activity (poor breeding, care, irresponsible human owners)! Well-bred and well-raised dogs of any breed can be great pets, including rottweiler's (who are usually big sweethearts) and pit-bulls. Unfortunately, because of the physical strengths these breeds have, some moronic humans have chosen to irresponsibly breed, teach, and train these poor animals to be dangerous. My Pyr loves pit bulls! I have no idea why, but whenever he sees one, he goes bounding over to play with it. He must know something I don't, because every time, they play well together. (I will admit, I get a little nervous and keep a real close eye on the pit until I get a feel for one as a new encounter - not the dogs fault...).
To keep a fair balance here, we had an incident in our neighborhood this past week where a black lab nearly killed a neighbors Wheaton terrier. These dogs had met before without incident, but the Wheaton's owner let it out off-leash, it went into the lab's yard, and who knows what went wrong, but the lab ended up doing significant damage (3 bite-marks around the throat, with 3 tubes in place to drain the punctures). Not a pretty sight folks. Neither dog had any history of conflict or aggressive behavior. Unattended, with territorial boundaries crossed (dogs are territorial), something snapped and it had a bad ending. So, is the lab a "bad" or "vicious" dog? OR, does the real fault for the incident lie with the owner who didn't act responsibly by keeping their dog in their yard?? The dogs were being dogs. The owner screwed up. While you'd hope it wouldn't end that way, dogs are dogs. They're animals, no matter what we think, there is always some "animal" left in our little, sweet, wouldn't hurt a flea, puppy.
Frankly, I'm a little pissed that this thread got off-track as it did. I was excited, as a dog lover, to see this thread pop up. Dogs are wonderful creatures that bring us so much joy and pleasure in our lives, yet a thread that should celebrate our family members (guessing most dog owners feel this way...) and our buddies has turned nasty is disappointing - it should be noted, this is not the fault of any of the dogs/breeds listed in this conversation.

One more fact for everyone to consider - the number of people killed/injured by dogs each year vs. the number of peopple killed/injured by
other people a year?
I feel better now. Move along, nothing to see here...
