Belmont Resident, what a horrible story. These people sound like terribly irresponsible dog owners. As the owner of a large dog who happens to be a pitbull mix, if my dog ever attacked a person, it would not get another chance. People who own large, strong dogs of any breed need to pay a lot of attention to training and dominating the dogs to ensure that the dogs know who is in charge.
The problems arise when people get these dogs because they are cool and then do not invest the time and energy in building a healthty relationship with the dog. I think this problem is especially prevalent with pit bulls. People often get them because they are bad ass, not realizing that they tend to be very high energy, high intensity dogs. They need a lot of attention from their owners to be well adjusted. Any high energy dog that is not getting enough exercise and attention is going to become anxious and probably aggressive.
The first time you were attacked, these owners should have realized that they had a real problem on their hands and taken drastic steps to correct it. I have a very hard time faulting the dog for the owners irresponsibility.
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