Rectify yes, wipe out a breed because we cocked up no. As I have said where do you draw the line. A pair of rotties killed a baby before Ellie died, and who's to say if it wasn't a pitbull but another breed her uncle got, remembering that he used the dog for protection, that that dog, regardless of breed wouldn't have killed her. Also Greyhounds have killed children, all in this country not in the states where they have a bigger dog problem then us.
A Border Collie ripped off a childs ear, nearly all my dogs have been attacked by Collies and I;ve been bitten by a fair few but I wouldn't want to see them all killed because they too are 'unpredictable' in the wrong hands.
Becky

I agree its the owners BUT what about all the non provoked attacks by dogs owned by sensible owners, believe me there are plenty of those around too, and that is my point about whats bred into their temperament.

Just out of interest, have a look here .........

http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html

Not many people can tell a Pitt from many similar breeds !!

As for indiscriminate breeding of them, there are already, mainly In Ireland, and then brought here. I think there are roughly about 100 breeders of them as it stands at the moment, and it will only get worse !

the link you just posted malady - i found the pit first time, im untrained, not intrested in these types of breeds etc

police etc need training on this then mabey we might see some results.....

Yes I got it too, but I did post it on another dog forum once, and only a few people got it right !!!!!!

I think the only real way round it would be to DNA test the dogs, if they yet know the profiles of the different dogs suspected and the profile of APBT !

yes i agree but that is £££

i still think though they should wipe out the pitbull in this country though, that would solve a lot imho

can you state what a pitbull is in the UK?
and how they are to be positively identified.

forgot to add...

and how they should be "wiped out"?

as this was the term used in the original post also

all canines are capable of killing,a pair of labs that had been a family dogs for 9yrs,killed their 4 yr old last year
we wipe out one breed what do we do with all the rest?

the point that is being missed by all here though is that the pitbull is ALREADY banned in this country so therefore should already be wiped out seeing as its 17yr old law. So whatever pits around at the time of breeding age would no longer be here.

So the ones that are ARE ihere are llegal and probably not particularly well bred either if brought in illegally. So therefore what has the law achieved - nothing -these dogs are in worse hands than if they had been allowed to be sold publicly.

All of this pits wandering loose etc - IF it was such a HUGe problem in this country we would have had far more deaths etc than Ellie - who might i point out as tragic as that case was - her uncle was responsible for her death - he was exactly the type of person who shouldnt own any dog as if that dog had been a staffy/collie/mastiff/lab etc etc it would probably have resulted in the same situation. Bearing in mind that it would take far less force for a dog to kill a child than an adult, so breed doesnt really come into it.

Suze - you seem determined that no other breed is capable of the same as a pitbull - i think many dogs could do the same damage and i think the majority of dogs may have tendencies to follow their instincts or past - but how far back do you take it ? All dogs originated from wolves so surely if using your logic then they all have the capacity to revert back ??

Pitbulls bred correctly and nurtured are not walking timebombs - if that was the case there would be far more injuries/deaths etc than what there is ( talking about the US here as i dont consider pits in this country today to be meeting those breeding standards i am talking about)

I really dont understand how as dog lovers anyone could support eradicating a breed, whose only fault is to be a muscular dog desired by idiots to make them feel big.

Pits were NOT ORIGINALLY bred to fight in pits with humans or dogs, humans chose to put them to this use later. how far back do you go with history to prove temperaments ??

Humans kill humans far more easily, and frequently than dogs. I do not as a human being wish to eradicate a breed of dog that i would happily own if it were not illegal in this country.

Arguing about whether you could spot one doesnt really matter as nobody enforces anything - the dog owning and animal cruelty laws NEED to change to prevent future deaths or injuries and that is the only thing that will inevitably make any difference.

Well, a similar way to how they were here perhaps? let the ones that are alive now, be neutered and live out their lives naturally.