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Maybe it's just an old wives tale then.

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No dog can lock their jaws. They have very strong jaws and were breed to clamp onto a bull's nose and stay there no matter what the bull did. FYI, rottweilers kill more people than pits. Pitbulls are not at the top breed that bites. Pits were breed to be dog aggressive and people friendly. No dog fighter wanted a dog attacking them. Strong, big jawed, dog aggressive pits were selectively breed. Weak, timid, or people aggressive dogs were not breed and either left to die or killed.

They are extremely trainable and are pack oriented. They respond well to strong leadership and will not question an owner that has properly trained its dog.

The media really focuses on pits. When other dogs attack or kill humans it is usually just listed as dog attacks kid or whatever.

Yes the are good at killing. Way too many people get them for the wrong reasons. Way too many people do not train there dogs properly which is more important with large dogs or dogs more capable of killing.

Over 30+ dog species have killed humans. In twenty years though only 500 or so people have died in the US to dogs. I am not saying this is small or not important but every year there are millions of dog bites and quite a few are serious.

I understand most people's reaction to pits because of the info they are given. Some intresting stuff pops up when you start to research dog bites. Most are kids, a chained dog is much more likely to attack, males attack more than females, non neutered/non spayed attack a lot more than n/s dogs.

I would never have a dog if I had to put it on a chain. It really messes them up. I have no kids. Mixing any kind of dog and an infant is not smart. Any big/aggressive dog is not wise with children to young teenagers. Several children receive bites because they do not understand or able to control dogs. Coming between their food, dogs in heat, etc.

Accepting dogs into society is open for debate. No study has ever concluded that pits have an inclination to attack people based on breeding. It is not fair to pits/pit owners considering other breeds have done more damage. I do feel that too many people have large or aggressive dogs and are improperly training and raising them. Anyone that buys a dog with the purpose having it be a guard dog and trains him that way better be able to control and supervise this encouraged killer.

If my dog bites someone I accept resonsibility. If it got loose its my fault. If I failed to socialize it w/ people and other dogs its my fault. If I had it tied up and some kid jumped into my yard to get his ball and gets killed its my fault. If I walk it w/o a leash and it attacks someone its my fault. If it eats my child its my fault. If it misinterpets someone's actions as aggressive towards me and attacks them its my fault.

I have had three pit bulls all female and spayed and all were people friendly. One entered are home on her death bed. It appeared she was used to fight. She had scars covering her body. My sister refused to let her go. We all thought it would die. I discovered the only thing she would eat was old frozen LJS fish. She was named Bones(pretty much all she was) when we still thought she would die. After her recovery my stepfather decided that we could keep and begun to train it. She was as timid of people as it gets. She was extremely dog aggressive but would freeze if ordered to. I no longer have a dog. My last one died of cancer and I am in the military. My girlfriend however just adopted a beagle/walker hound mix. It is about 25 pounds. It meat-hooked my nose two nights ago w/ its fang. I fell to the ground like a brick and was bleeding for about 30 minutes. My pits never even came close to anything like this. I didn't go to the hospital. It was never reported. If a larger dog did this exact thing, with even less force I probably would have been in the hospital. So data is not totally reliable.

I do accept the idea that their is more risk with some breeds over others. I just feel that pits have been singled out while a culture of people owning dogs and not properly caring/training for them is often ignored. Not until long ago the american pit bull was an image of what a dog should be.

Here is some stuff I dug up.

A survey by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ("CDC") concluded that dogs bite nearly 2% of the U.S. population -- more than 4.7 million people annually. (Sacks JJ, Kresnow M, Houston B. Dog bites: how big a problem? Injury Prev 1996;2:52-4.)

Almost 800,000 bites per year -- one out of every 6 -- are serious enough to require medical attention. (Weiss HB, Friedman D, Coben JH. Incidence of dog bite injuries treated in emergency departments. JAMA 1998;279:51-53.) "Studies indicate that pit bull-type dogs were involved in approximately a third of human DBRF (i.e., dog bite related fatalities) reported during the 12-year period from 1981 through1992, and Rottweilers were responsible for about half of human DBRF reported during the 4 years from 1993 through 1996....[T]he data indicate that Rottweilers and pit bull-type dogs accounted for 67% of human DBRF in the United States between 1997 and 1998. It is extremely unlikely that they accounted for anywhere near 60% of dogs in the United States during that same period and, thus, there appears to be a breed-specific problem with fatalities." (Sacks JJ, Sinclair L, Gilchrist J, Golab GC, Lockwood R. Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998. JAVMA 2000;217:836-840.)

Other breeds were also responsible for homicides, but to a much lesser extent. A 1997 study of dog bite fatalities in the years 1979 through 1996 revealed that the following breeds had killed one or more persons: pit bulls, Rottweilers, German shepherds, huskies, Alaskan malamutes, Doberman pinschers, chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards and Akitas. (Dog Bite Related Fatalities," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 30, 1997, Vol. 46, No. 21, pp. 463 et. seq.)

The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby's uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards. ("Baby Girl Killed by Family Dog," Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 9, 2000, Home Edition, Metro Section, Page B-5.)