Im not trying to be a dick either, just explaining my point. In my eyes, in public where I’m surrounded by strangers, it’s really a 50/50 chance that that person is a responsible pet owner and has their pet trained and on a leash. At any point walking to school, I could come across a shitty owner or a great owner. The difference is, a small dog with a shitty owner is something I can handle. I’m 5’5, if a small terrier or chihuahua tries to nibble at me or whatnot it doesn’t take much to knock it off or yell at the owner to pick it up. For breeds that are larger, I’m much more worried about a possible attack. The owners usually are older folk or teenagers, at least in my area anyway. If their large dog tries to attack me, they can’t really do much to hold their dog back. The most they can attempt to do is pull the leash back or try and tear it from me.
The thing is- I’ve met absolutely HORRIBLE dog owners around here. Most of them around here are “family friendly” dogs like golden retrievers and Labradors. Even with owners that let them run wild and sometimes leave them there running around unattended, they don’t try and be aggressive. The worst I’ve seen them do is try and play fetch with a skater kid’s hat, but I digress.
Even on leashes, pit bulls have been a problem around here. You’re right. It’s not the pill bulls fault they’re aggressive, it’s humans faults for getting them involved with dog fighting and MAKING them aggressive. I feel sorry for the pull bull, but that doesn’t make me an asshole for being cautious and staying away from them.
That dog park incident I mentioned? Two people walking on opposites sides of this little area. There’s two trails, and on one, and older gentleman walking his golden retriever, and on the other, a younger man walking his pit bull. Both on a leash, mind you. The pit bull saw the retriever, ran straight towards it, snapping the leash, and jumped over the little stream separating the two trails and lunges at the other dog. Poor thing didn’t have time to react, the older man starts screaming and trying to pry the pit bull off his dog. The Pitt bull is biting the gold’s leg, hard enough to draw a lot of blood. The other “owner” after a few seconds of wrestling with his own dog, hauls it up and runs into his car in the nearby parking lot. I can’t see the damage done to the gold (I was farther back playing Pokémon Go lol) but it’s serious enough for the old man to pick it up and run towards his own car and drive it off somewhere.
I have never seen another dog just MAUL some random dog with the intent to hurt it that bad before. I also remember when a family friend of mine in middle school had to “give up” their pit bull because it massacred a few neighborhood cats and family of raccoons.
Never seen a chihuahua, beagle, Jack Russell terrier, or any other large dog have that type of behavior before. I get a lot of shit from people because of my fear for pit bulls. Again. I don’t blame the dogs specifically, I blame the humans who made them into what they became.