A 10-acre stretch of land just outside Los Angeles is pit-bull Nirvana. It's called Villalobos Rescue Center and it's run by Tia Maria Torres, an unabashed pit-bull lover. Torres has found homes for thousands of pits since the rescue opened its doors 15 years ago. Some of these animals were abandoned. Some were shelter dogs slated for euthanasia. Others were confiscated in drug busts or fighting rings. And some—like Mouse, a small white pit bull—are victims of nature, the so-called Hurricane Katrina dogs of New Orleans.It's a 24/7 job, but Torres gets help from a posse of volunteers, her four children, and six ex-cons, who she calls her "pit bulls on legs." Her work is chronicled in a new six-part documentary, Pit Bulls and Parolees, airing on Animal Planet, the first of which premiered on Friday night. You'd have to carry a cold heart to not feel something for what these dogs have endured.But I have a problem with pit bulls. And it has more to do with the two-legged creatures holding their leashes (if there is a leash).Because of their sheer numbers—estimates show that there are anywhere from 5 million to 10 million pit-bull-type dogs in the U.S. today, out of about 61 million total dogs—pits have become the dog du jour for a lot of people, not just gangbangers and wannabe thugs who use a pit as proxy for toughness. About 20 percent of dogs in ASPCA shelters are pit mixes.I've seen those who adopt these dogs for all the wrong reasons. The fearful might get a pit because they want a great guard dog. (Pits make lousy guard dogs. A well-bred pit is just too human-friendly to protect your property.) Some get a pit because Rachael Ray has one and they want to rescue a dog. (Why didn't you take up cooking instead of getting a dog that you know nothing about?) And the trendiest pet owners spend thousands of dollars for a "blue" pit because the dogs are rare. (No, they aren't, and you just got swindled by an unethical breeder who contributed to the overpopulation problem.) But pets aren't purses, and people who jump into pit-bull ownership without the requisite training and education can often do more harm than good. That's why when I see a pit off-leash and I'm walking Turk, my 20-pound schnoodle, I'm scared.Let's face it: pit bulls are public enemy No. 1. That's quite a comedown for a pup once considered "America's dog." They were owned by the likes of Helen Keller and Teddy Roosevelt, and when I was a kid, a wiry American pit-bull terrier named Sam endured the indignity of being called a "horsy" as he pulled me around in a wagon on an upstate New York farm. But in talking with pit-bull experts, it's clear that some current owners are too easy to spook, are too ill-informed, and have unrealistic expectations of what pit bulls can do.Torres knows all about the pit bull's people problem. "Oh, my God, I see it all the time," she says. "Some of these people are completely clueless. They get a pit and then they want to get rid of it if it grabs and shakes a toy and barks. They don't understand why it loves everybody, but scraps with dogs. It's insane. And it's hurting the pit bull."Some of the so-called pit problems are directly linked to the dog's history. Today's pit bull can trace its roots back to bulldogs, which were used for bull baiting, a gruesome spectacle in which the dogs would try to pin a tied bull by latching on to its nose. When bull baiting was outlawed, these bulldogs were then bred with small terriers, feisty dogs known for their drive. The end result was the original pit bull, a "canine gladiator" bred specifically for dog-on-dog combat.Though the majority of pit bulls today are no longer being purposefully bred along fighting lines, pit bulls still can be dog aggressive (as are many other types of dogs). How that plays out will vary from pit to pit, and the dogs need a smart owner to keep them in line. Dog aggression can be managed by getting a pit into a training program that offers structured, controlled socialization, says Mary Harwelik, a certified dog trainer and founder of The Real Pit Bull, a pit advocacy and education organization in New Jersey.Pits are also among the most human-friendly canines. In tests conducted by the American Temperament Test Society, which evaluates stability, friendliness, and other traits in several hundred dog breeds, the American pit-bull terrier scored 85.3 percent, higher than a golden retriever. Their human-friendly nature remains strong even in horrific circumstances. "I thought I was going to meet a bunch of Tasmanian devils," says Dr. Frank MacMillan, a veterinarian with Best Friends Animal Sanctuary who is working with some 20 pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels. "I was stunned at how sweet they were."That inherent sweetness toward people can lead well-meaning humans to be too permissive with their precious pooches. Because of its tendencies toward dog-on-dog aggression, Torres advises pit owners to keep their dogs out of mosh-pit, free-for-all dog parks. "Not a lot of pit owners want to hear that," says Torres. "If there's a fight, no matter what dog started it, the pit will be blamed."At Villalobos, Torres does an exhaustive interview with potential adopters. She wants to know what kinds of dogs they owned in the past, whether there are kids in the house, if it's a multidog household, if they have a cat, and what they want from their pit. Once they answer those questions, Torres tries to match them up with the right pit bull. "Everybody thinks they want a Ferrari, when they really need a Yugo," she says. "The good thing about a pit is that some of them can be high energy, others just want to watch TV. "Despite laws in many parts of the country that place restrictions on pit ownership, things might be looking up for the breed. "People are having a lot more empathy for the pit," says Torres. "They understand that this is a great dog that is enduring a lot of hell." If you want to rescue a pit bull, Torres's advice is simple: Make sure the dog is the right one for you, and you are right for it. Get the dog spayed or neutered, obey leash laws and any local regulations, and do ongoing training. That's smart advice for any dog owner, even if you want a yappy Shih Tzu.

Then explain why pits and pit types are killing people at the rate of one every 21 days for the past three years? Continuing to push these dogs as family pets is immoral. www.DogsBite.org, look at thefaces of the victims, if they have one left. Then come back and tell me how wonderful these dogs are.

Behind every news story about a pit bull attack is a very real victim. I should know, I am a pit bull victim. There is a reason that no other breed needs the kind of advocacy that this article, and this television show feature. The dogs are bred for an activity so violent that it is a felony in all 50 states. Many dogs lead less than ideal lives but do not cause the suffering and death that pit bulls do. I agree with NoPits 100%.

I very much sympathize with the victim of the dog bite. My dog bite was from a Scottish Terrier of a friend of mine who I had known for quite some time, and who did considerable damage to my hand. While living in Houston I got to know a woman who also had a pit bull sanctuary, and I got used to the idea of 10 to 12 pit bulls greeting me whenever I visited. Did she have mean ones? Sure. Perhaps they were bred to fight, or perhaps their owners didn't know what to do with them, but from my experience, most pit bulls want to be lap dogs, not fighters. To want to annihilate a breed is, in my mind, going way too far. The fault is hardly the dog;s . If blame is to be assessed, how about the illegal breeders who cull the docile dogs and keep the aggressive ones, or the owners who either buy them for fighting or have no idea how to train them. Shall we do away with them as well? What about the handful of breeds that many people THINK are pit bulls, but who, in reality, aren't. Some think that pit bulls are large fighting machines, when in truth, they are a small to medium sized breed. Many mistake bulldogs for pit bulls. Shall we just say that any dog resembling a pit bull should be put down? What about mixed breeds? I now do volunteer work at our local pound, taking pictures of the dogs there for a website that tries to get the dogs adopted. To be honest, I'd rather take the pit bulls out of their pens often rather than the labs, who will jump all over, and lunge on the leash. Pit bulls will generally take a cautious stance, waiting to assess the temperament of the person who is there to meet them. That's hardly the sign of an inherently vicious dog. The problem is, they are by nature, people pleasers, and will do what is asked of them. If guarding is asked, they will do it well; if fighting is asked, they will do it to the death, but in reality, they'd much rather be lap dogs.

Good Grief! The latest figures for dog bite deaths in the US show .02 deaths per million population. And only 22% of those were pitbulls. (4 last year, NOT 3 every 21 days.)
Dogfighting is a felony for PEOPLE, not dogs. The dogs have no choice, and should not share the punishment.

Misinformation of the scope you have posted should be a felony! May you trip on a poodle and bloody your nose.

I agree. People who own pit bulls shouldn't own pit bulls.

Pit bulls do not have a natural tendency toward human aggression, nor are they naturally unpredictable, nor do they have a locking jaw or more bite PSI than other large breeds. These are myths and hype (just like how bloodhounds were vilified in the 1800s and the Doberman in the 1900s - read this book available for free download by the leading expert on dog bites in the US: http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/ncrc-publications/ ). The CDC even admits you can???t say one dog bites more than another because those ???stats??? aren???t really stats and are based on media and witnesses saying what kind of dog it was. 20 breeds are commonly mistaken for the pit bull. Can you spot the pit bull http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html ? Yes, there are some aggressive pit bulls out there because some people have raised them that way. Pit bull haters are part of the problem. The more the public says a dog is bad, the more bad people want that dog. Back when they were all-American family dogs there was no issue. Ban pit bulls, and bad owners simply move on to another breed. The Netherlands proved this. They banned pit bulls in 1993 and recently lifted the ban after seeing their bite rates didn???t go down at all. Now they???re focusing on owner responsibility, which is the real issue. Hold owners responsible, enforce leash laws, create dangerous dog ordinances, but don???t make them breed specific because it doesn???t work (see: http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/breed-specific-legislation.html ), and BSL sentences thousands of innocent family pets to death. My rescued pit bull is a therapy dog, as are many other pit bulls. No breed of dog, just like no race of human, is inherently evil. They are just reflections of their circumstances (and pit bull are likely the most abused breed), so let???s see to it they have better circumstances in the future rather than killing them all so that bad owners can just move on to give another breed a bad rap.

I totally agree that it's the owners who create the type of pit who is overly aggressive and dangereous. I also know from experience that pit bulls are villified. My brother has an American pit bull terrier. This dog has spent alot of time @ my house with my family and I couldn't ask for a better dog. The dog has lived w/ me @ times also. He is awesome. Even unleashed on walks will not stray from my side given the right command and a firm hand no matter how many dogs are around. As for his guard capabilities, I would be alerted by pit with a growl before they even hit my 3rd flr. landing. A great dog and playmate for me and my daughter and a very loving, affectionate animal.

I absolutely agree. People think pit bulls are like this extra-effective home security system. You leave any animal chained up, in the cold, with no attention and love as a "guard dog" and it's gonna turn into a real unhappy camper. Then the dog goes after someone or something and gets put down as a result.

Most dogs can be turned either into the sweetest, most loving, most loyal creatures one has ever known, or else a bunch of near-insane feral beasts, depending on nurture. Dog neglect and abuse are NOT good things.

Well, if the dogs are so good and the owners are the cause of their viciousness, then the owners need to be euthanized when their dog kills a child or a weakened adult, but only imprisoned for life if the dog merely mauls the unsuspecting victim. The dog can then be required to be in possession of the "right" owner, never to attack again. Guaranteed. How am I supposed to know which dog it is when walking in the vicinity of one of these?

Good balanced write-up on pit bulls...basically, owners need to take responsibility for their dogs. My husband and I bought our first pit bull when he was 5 weeks old. He was a cute puppy---we knew almost nothing about pit bulls. But we thought if we gave him enough love he would be the kind of dog we wanted him to be. We read up on pit bulls and their strengths and weaknesses and learned to make him know that we are the boss, not him. He's completely submissive to us. He is the most lovable, silly dog now at a little over 5 years old and even sleeps under the covers with my parents sometimes. He doesn't know what a stranger is - sometimes scares people a little at first because of his size when he goes to greet them (licking and wanting his ears scratched) - and gets in the truck with the UPS guy. Our positive experience with him made us ambassadors for the breed. A few years ago we adopted a pit-dalmatian Hurricane Katrina survivor. She was very traumatized by her experience and takes a lot more of our attention that our male dog. But she is the most affectionate dog, always wanting to be touched and loved. Luckily we live somewhere they can get a lot of exercise (essential to a pit bull's mental health). I don't think you have to be super educated before you get a pit bull, but you should be prepared to spend a lot of time with them. Pit bulls aren't for everyone, but with the right amount of love and discipline, these can be amazing dogs. It's heartbreaking when people use their best characteristics - loyalty, strength, intelligence - for bad.

The problem is, when a terrier or a poodle loses its temper, the worst it can do is a few small bites.
Pit bulls kill.

"getting a pit into a training program that offers structured, controlled socialization' Right. In a perfect world everyone's children would be well-behaved, too. Till then, keep your pit bull leashed or locked up. I do not even want to to see it.

I got my pit bull when she was 4 months old, from a public animal shelter that told me I was getting a lab/dalmatian mix. I read about Tia Torres in the LA Times and we ended up attending several of her pit bull puppy classes. She (the dog) is the sweetest thing on earth! The dog is now almost 11 years old and I learned very early to work very carefully with her to make friends. She is almost never off-leash and we have learned not to get ourselves into situations where she will get the "blame" for any problems that arise. People who think pits should be chained to a tree at all times, or outlawed, like some commenters below, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Pit owners have a special responsibility, not only to keep their own dogs and others safe, but to help clear up the misconceptions about this breed with an especially undeserved reputation.

Pit bulls are bred to be aggressive. They can be extremely unpredictable.

FACTS:
1. A really sweet pitbull named Igor recently tore the face of the man who rescued him. "He was such a sweet dog"
2. Several years ago one of my sister's kindergarten students was mauled to death because an un-neutered male was made unstable by a female in estrous.
3. I was bitten by a pitbull at a friend's house when I entered a room the dog was in. I required stitches.
4. And my cat was killed by a pitbull brought to my house by a friend.
I am just one person and these are a few of the pitbull maulings and attacks that I know about personally.
I will not allow these "sweet" dogs in my house. They are dangerous and unpredictable because artificial selection by humans has made them that way. Pitbull "advocates" should advocate the dog away. There is no reason to have dogs like this. People who own these dogs endanger other people's dogs and children by not keeping them on the short leashes they must be on. I am an animal advocate, and don't believe that they should all be euthanized. But they definitely should not be bred any longer. It's time to call them what they are. Dangerous.