erinja:Pit bulls are not more dangerous than other dogs (unless raised to be aggressive by their owners - which is unfortunately all too common). They make a great family pet; unfortunately, the type of person who is looking for a "tough" dog and wants to train their dog to be aggressive is likely to get a pit bull (or another dog with a "dangerous" reputation like a rottweiler, a doberman, etc.), perpetuating the stereotype.

It's unfair to characterize them all as dangerous menaces to society due to the actions of bad people who use them abusively.

When I was a boy, a work colleague of my step-father was killed by his two pit pulls at home. They didn't find the man behind the ivy-covered chain-link fences lining his backyard along the street until two days later. It was not pretty. CBS News carried the story 3 days ago of a pit bull that attacked a third-grader in Chiliwick, Canada. I can understand why the apartment owner gave my son exactly three days to get out of the apartment, two of which were over a weekend.

That the American pit bulls were bred to kill is beyond doubt. That the owner is responsible for making them mean or not, may well be true. This seems to me one of those places where just because you can do something like breed a potential killer does not mean you should. The Staffordshire Bull Terrier from which they descend appears to have all of the desirable characteristics for a family dog but to lack the potential explosive meanness. It makes me wonder what horrors we may be unleashing on ourselves through genetics. (Monsanto springs immediately to mind). Sometimes our ethics fail to keep pace with what we can do today that we couldn't only yesterday.

Having read through the discussions here, would you still recommend I use your tentative recommendation of "usona pitbulo" as what would be the most understandable on this side of the Atlantic?

I still recomend amerika terdogo. The term "American" in this sense is of a dog bred in the New World (yes, probably precisely originating in the US but as your article notes, also in Canada). "Dogo" is already in use (see Wells, "mastiff, pit bull, molosser" - the "ter" may be optional.

jkph00:That the American pit bulls were bred to kill is beyond doubt. That the owner is responsible for making them mean or not, may well be true. This seems to me one of those places where just because you can do something like breed a potential killer does not mean you should.

A pit bull, used in colloquial speech, doesn't only refer to American Pit Bull Terriers, refers to a group of breeds and crosses between them (hence the problem of municipalities specifically banning "pit bulls" - the definition of exactly which dogs are covered by the ban is a perpetual problem with such legislation). A Staffordshire Bull Terrier (which you spoke favorably of) is one of those.

Every single dog above a certain size is a potential killer. In Maryland, put through legislation making it easier to ban pit bulls from apartments etc. One problem - how do you tell if a dog is a pit bull? Genetically, there are dogs whose genes say "pit bull" but who do not look like a pit bull, and dogs that have the characteristic look but whose genes say they they are a mix of something else. So is it a vicious killer if it looks like a different kind of dog (and isn't banned) but has pit bull genes? Or is it a vicious killer if it has the "pit bull look" but its genes tell a different story? So the owner of your excellent family dog, the Staffordshire, can end up getting denied housing because of an attempt to get a broad and nebulously defined group of dogs banned from apartments.

erinja:So the owner of your excellent family dog, the Staffordshire, can end up getting denied housing because of an attempt to get a broad and nebulously defined group of dogs banned from apartments.

Yes, I agree that can certainly happen if a law is not written specifically enough. Roman law such as the Germans have attempts to write such precision in. British case law allows judges to make decisions. American federal law, though based on British case law, no longer allows judges much leeway, thereby bringing about just what you mention when it's a federal case. And state laws? There are fifty different bar exams in the U.S. It's a wonder anything at all gets done here, eh?

Even if it's written very specifically, it can be hard to identify a dog's exact breed by its look. I guess you'd have to resort to an expensive DNA test if a tenant decided to protest his or her eviction. Tricky stuff.

To say the pit bull was bred to kill is completely incorrect and is just another example of the lies media have spread regarding this breed of dog. Yes they were bred for fighting, other dogs and of course to hunt animals. Just as the majority of dogs were bred for hunting and killing in someway. The nature of a fighting dog means that the owners (yes humans) had to be in the pit right there alongside the dogs. Any dog that bit a person was labelled a 'man biter' and shot. This somewhat cruel but necessary means of selective breeding led to one of the most human friendly dogs around, that will never bite a human even when experiencing extreme pain or in the heat of battle.
This also makes them great with children, jump on or pull a pit bulls ears and it won't react, their pain threshold is built for teeth and claws.

Animal aggression does not equal human aggression, the same way a hound isn't going to suddenly turn on the family kids.

According to the American Temperament Test Society, temperament evaluations of American Pit Bull Terriers shows that this breed has a very high passing rate of 82.6%.
The average passing rate for the other 121 breeds of dogs in the tests: 77%.
Pit bull Myths

The amount of attacks supposedly carried out by pit bulls you hear in the news are down to a few things. Thugs breeding and owning these dogs to look tough and protection on the streets, therefore training them to be aggressive (usually by beating the crap out of them), or breeding dogs with unstable temperaments. To be honest half these dogs are not purebred pit bulls, but badly, backyard bred mutts made to look bigger and tougher. True pit bulls are medium size dogs, not the huge monsters the media wants you to see. Finally the media will call anything a pit bull. If a mutt kills a child and its big, its automatically a pit bull. Why? Because those are the stories that sell. 'Labrador kills child' is not as sensational as 'Pit bull mauls child'.

@jkph00 I'm not saying your father's colleague wasn't killed by his pit bulls, but freak accidents happen with dogs all the time, regardless of breed. Just this week a Jack russell killed a baby. Dogs don't 'turn' for no reason. Attacks happen because people didn't recognise the signs until it was too late. As humans we just tend to miss them. Most of the time we forget they are just dogs!

Apartments seem to have the right to refuse many breeds due to unfair hysteria, including German shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermans, Akitas and Huskies! Some have a weight limit, renting with dogs is a minefield.

Oh and DNA tests don't work accurately on dogs when determining breed especially with ones so similar as the bull breeds.

Back on topic, I prefer Usona Pitbulo/ Pitbuldogo. It's nice to have resemblance to the english word and Usono buldogo would instead refer to another breed the American Bulldog

Vikipedio havas usona staforda teriero:
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usona_staforda_terier...

List of Dog breeds in Esperanto / Listo de hundrasoj:
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listo_de_hundrasoj

parsa9:Vikipedio havas usona staforda teriero:
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usona_staforda_terier...

List of Dog breeds in Esperanto / Listo de hundrasoj:
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listo_de_hundrasoj

Very helpful! Dankon!