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My Chihuahua could do just as much damage, as any other breeds
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I'm sorry, but I have Chihuahuas and I have a Lab and a Doberman. You can view my pictures of my Doberman's mouth over my Chihuahua's head. Then maybe you can compare side by side the size difference of their mouths, teeth and jaws. Then come back and look me straight in the eyes and tell my a Chihuahua can cause as much damage. LOL. Just teasin' you. And I dare say a Pitbull has much more massive jaws and strength than a Doberman.
Anyhow....Darkness, I agree with you. A dog shouldn't be so easily provoked into biting. What in God's name could that little child have been doing that was sooooo awful? Yes, maybe something, but the dog could have walked away couldn't it? Something is definitely wrong here and I don't think it has anything to do with the dog being mistreated.
This is what I was talking about in another thread regarding different breeds, what jobs they were selectively bred to do and how genetics play a huge role in their temperaments. Some breeds were bred to be aggressive for one reason or another and some were bred to be companions or hunting along side their master.
A dog who was selectively bred to fight is going to have more tendancy to react in that way to solve it's problems. I am not one to be breed discriminatory, not at all. I have a Doberman. But he too may be more apt to bite someone than my Lab. After all, he's suspicious and skeptical of people he doesn't know, to a degree due to his breeding and design. My Lab, on the other hand was not bred to aggress anyone, person or animal. A Lab tends to be very trusting and loving of most everyone. Now, don't say that "I know lots of Labs who have bitten." Of course. And I realize that there are tons of Pitties out there that are lovely, just as there are Dobermans and a great deal depends on their raising. But, I do hear of a lot of attacks and bites by these dogs, even lately.
My GSD and my Lab put up with all kinds of things my small kids and their friends would do. Of course the dogs weren't being hurt or anything, but they'd do something the dog wouldn't like and the dogs would get up and walk away. There was never ever even a lip curl from these dogs...not even once in all the years we had them.
My son fell off the dining room table and landed on my GSD while he was sound asleep. That dog got the wind knocked out of him. I could hear him grunt as the air was expelled. He stood up and calmly walked to the other side of the room and went back to sleep. If a dog doesn't like something and is able to walk away, then that is what he should do. That is what kind of temperament I want in a dog, nothing less.
I'll tell you another story about a Pit bull that I picked up off the road on a rainy night to save him from being hit by a car. I took him home where my male GSD was and watched the two. They seemed to like eachother very well, ate out of the same dish and played a lot. I put an add in the paper. This dog was very nice and sweet, got along great with everyone, including my dog. One afternoon he was asleep on the floor in the dining room where I was sitting. My little girl, about 7 years old came out from her nap and her walking across the kitchen floor startled that dog into wakefulness. My daughter was probably 14 feet away from the dog. She was not being loud, just speaking. The dog sprang up to it's feet and barked and growled viciously at her. I told her to go to her room while I was yelling at the dog, "NO!!!" The dog continued this savage barking and growling. I again shouted, "NO!" Finally it stopped. (This was years ago) And everything seemed to go back to normal again. But I kept that dog in my fenced back yard away from my kids and finally, the owners saw my add and called, picked the dog up and that was that. I found that behavior very weird. It was like he couldn't recover after being startled. Scary.
I know some of you have Pitties and love them and I bet they'll always be great dogs and that many, many are. It's just freaky that I've been reading so many stories of attacks by them lately. Now this family wasn't into fighting dogs illegally were they? It sounds like a family with kids and a pet.