The American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) was originally bred in the British Isles for bull baiting. According to information from Bad Rap, a California pit bull advocacy group, bull baiting was pit bulls "rounding" up bulls for an audience's entertainment. This became illegal in 1835, and that's when the idea of dog fighting began. The idea was to breed them specifically to be aggressive towards other animals, but nice to humans. This was so the humans wouldn't get bit when pulling the dogs off of each other.
Pit bulls came to America traveling across seas with their British families. Here, pit bulls were known for their loving devotion and trustworthy nature. The Americans considered pit bulls as family dogs; they helped with farm work (hog catchers), and were companions for the kids.
Only until the 1980's did pit bull fighting become a problem in America. More and more people got involved in this "sport". Training the dogs to be mean, will obviously make them mean. Not everyone who owns a pit bull believes in dog fighting, so all pit bulls are not mean.
In recent studies by the American Temperament Test Society, 542 pit bulls were tested. Out of those, 456 passed and 86 failed. That is a passing rate of 84.1%. Since Denver has banned pit bulls, German Shepards have climbed the charts with 45 bites reported. Will they ban German Shepards next, and the next dog after that? Eventually at that rate, an entire dog ban will occur.
