REading the article, it was only 2 pitbulls. The others were labs. But still, why any pitbulls? They are not good pets, ever. The only reason to have them is to fight them or use them as protection. But who needs that kind of protection? And fighting them is just plain cruel.
But, speaking from the other side of the vicious dog stories, I can sort of understand what the owner was feeling about his pets. My best friend lives in Houston in a very nice old house in a not so nice neighborhood. She has a 8 foot tall iron fence with bars that are 2 inches apart surrounding the house. She also had 2 Rottweilers, a male and female. They were put down a few years ago for being vicious animals. A kid (teenage) was bit when poking a stick through the fence at the dogs. Now, the bars were too far apart for the dogs to get their heads out, so the kid had to have his hand inside the bars to have been bitten. The second occurance was a burglar who was "treed" by the dogs. Police came to check out a disturbance and found this guy perched on top of my friend's SUV inthe driveway. He was completely unknown to my friend and had been planning to break into the house. The dogs bit him and he climbed up on the car to get away. So, since there were now two complaints against the dogs, they were put down. Neither person was seriously injured. I normally do not like Rotts, but these were actually very nice dogs. They were trusted around babies in the house. When my little terrier tried to "play" with one of them by yipping at it and nipping at it, the Rott could easily have killed my dog if it had so wanted to. Instead, he just sat down and took it. Eventually he just stuck his big paw on my dog's back and made him stay still and stop. It was really funny to see.
So, I can see where some of these stories get exaggerated. People are afraid of the dogs because they are a specific breed and treat any agress ive behaviour at all as an attack, when in reality it really isn't.
But that is Rotts, not pit bulls. I can't see any redeeming qualities in pit bulls. And they are well known for killing and pack attacks.