The idiots dog of choice used to be the staffy because they thought they looked ‘hard’. Staffordshire bullterriers we’re purposely bred to not be aggressive to humans though, any who showed the slightest hint of aggression (to a handler, animal v animal aggression was encouraged) were killed and not allowed to breed.
So despite the huge amount of staffs owned by thick twats the previous decades, and despite of the complete lack of training and mistreatment of the dogs, the amount of times the dogs actually snapped was relatively low.
Now the dog of choice for the twats is the ‘xl bully’. Which are actually, at least according to the dna tests I’ve seen done on a number of them, largely American pitbull with usually a smaller mix of Rottweiler, American bulldog and Cano corso.
Those dogs are fiercely intelligent, need a phenomenal amount of training and hard work to be happy. Their breeding also largely focused on them being used as guard dog, so human aggression was not bred out of them. Stick one of those in a terraced council house with no training/abuse and it’s just a matter of time until a body bag is needed.
The travellers that are breeding them aren’t exactly breeding for good temperament. The goal is to make them bigger, and meaner. The cast offs are sold as puppies and adults in places like gumtree, usually as xl bullies or ‘staffy crosses’ to hapless (or feckless) families.
These pitbulls are the very definition of ‘fuck around and find out’. And they are absolutely deadly when bred and raised as they are being in the UK now on mass.