To the author of “Pit Bulls Get A Bad Rep Because They’re Bad Dogs,” I’m sorry but you’re just plain wrong. Your article is based on pure opinion and ONE personal experience with absolutely no facts to back you up.

I’m sorry you had a very bad experience in which you were severely injured, but just because you were attacked by one pit bull doesn’t mean the entire breed is aggressive and bad. Actually, they’re more tolerant than other breeds such as Chihuahuas, beagles, bulldogs, sheep dogs, Siberian Huskies, even golden retrievers, but you get the point. That’s not a matter of opinion, that’s a fact.

Don’t believe me? An entire study was done testing the temperament of different breeds of dogs. Another study also showed that the aggression Pit bulls typically exhibited was toward unfamiliar dogs, not humans. Dogs such as chihuahuas and dachshunds were more likely to exhibit aggression towards strangers and their owners, Australian Cattle Dogs towards strangers, and American cocker spaniels and beagles toward their owners. I

'm not trying to sit here and say all these other breeds of dogs are aggressive because that's just not accurate. I'm just showing that according to actual facts, pit bulls are not abnormally aggressive dogs like everyone makes them out to be.

Even though this is the truth of the matter, I know there are always anomalies. Not all pit bulls are like the dog that attacked you; I couldn’t tell you why that dog attacked you but I can tell you that isn’t the norm for pit bulls or dogs in general. Not every person you meet is a serial killer, the vast majority aren’t -- and not every pit bull you meet is going to attack you, the vast majority won’t.

You also say pit bulls were bred specifically for dog fights, and that is just plain wrong. Originally pit bulls were known as the English bull-baiting dog, dogs who were bred to be able to bite and hold large animals such as bulls and bears. This became illegal in the 1800s and that’s when some of these bull-baiting dogs were bred with smaller dogs like terriers (which created the pit bull breed) to begin dogfighting, the key word there being some. Yes, some pit bulls were bred to dogfight, but others were also bred to perform various work tasks and to be family dogs. Not every single pit bull was bred for dog fighting.

You know why I think pit bulls get such a bad rep? Because they have the ability to do so much damage. Pit bull attacks get the most attention because they’re big, powerful dogs and if they do attack you they can seriously injure or kill someone. Even though Chihuahuas are more likely to be aggressive toward humans they more than likely aren’t going to cause any serious, or lethal, damage. It’s the sad truth, and I think that’s the reason people believe pit bulls are such bad dogs. We barely ever hear about any other dog attacks in the news, we only hear about pit bulls and this causes people to think all pit bulls are aggressive and dangerous and this just isn’t the case.

Pit bulls are not a bad breed of dogs and I’m sick of people labeling them as such. The actions of one dog does not dictate the behavior of an entire breed. All dogs deserve a chance.