What's the first thing that come to your mind when you see a Pit Bull? It's probably "Holy crap. I'm going to avoid that at all cost, because it's probably mean and will bite me." Now, what happens when you see a Husky, or a Yorkshire Terrier, or an Australian Shepherd? Most likely "OH MY WORD! LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS! I NEED TO TOUCH IT!"
If you think these things, you're a part of the problem. That Husky, Yorkie, or even Aussie, has the same probability of biting you as the Pit Bull, but because of the name, you panic.
The vicious dog list shouldn't exist, because it puts an unwanted fear upon various dog breeds that are only doing what they're trained to do. There is no such thing as a vicious dog, only a malicious owner that trains the animal to be aggressive. What we should be doing, is screening the people adopting, purchasing, or breeding these animals. Once we limit who is allowed to own these dogs, I bet that the amount of "attacks" will drop.
Now you all are probably saying "But if it's because of the owner, how come my dog still wants to attack other dogs, and I'm not a bad owner?" Well, person, that's probably because you either have friends bring their dogs to your house, so now yours is getting territorial (natural instinct of the animal). If you notice however, when the dogs are at a park together, or in public, they don't really care what other dogs are around them or what they're doing. Now if you had a truly vicious dog or malicious owner, that dog would be trying to go crazy and attack every other dog in the park. Second reason cold be that your dog may actually just want to play with the other dog, and is only making weird noises because he's mad at you for not letting them.
Dogs, along with all other animals, are the most innocent creatures on this earth. They have no agenda, no other purpose in this world other than to simply live and "be dogs." Why should states be allowed to punish the dogs by putting them down, taking them away, putting them in dog pounds, or doing anything else to them--when it's not their fault. If you have a child, and they get in trouble at school, do you not say something to the parents about their parenting style? The dog is no different, except, it actually doesn't know what it's doing wrong. A dog has no art of it that knows the difference between playing aggressively with another dog, or attacking a smaller animal. It's version of "attacking" the smaller animal, could quite possibly just be it trying to play, but it doesn't know how to. Owner's of these dog breeds are the ones that need to be punished, not the dogs themselves.
It's time we end this stigma of having a "vicious" dog, because there is and will never be such a thing. There will always only ever be a malicious owner, that simply wants that dog to attack anything that moves.
