Why are rescue centres full of staffies?

[lecce]

Just that really. We are currently looking for a rescue dog and have no criteria other than that we have two dc aged 4& 6 and, having rarely sat on our own sofa together over the last 10 years , we would like something a fair bit smaller than the beautiful, sofa-hogging lurcher we recently had pts. We would also like a dog with more of a playful disposition than he had (he was a fantastic dog - not a criticism of him) and for the dog to be as young as possible, definitely no older than 2.

I have been ruling out staffies without really thinking about why. I suppose I had assumed they were aggressive. However, the more I look, the more it seems that we may be waiting a very long time for a dog unless we consider a staffy and I keep seeing all this stuff on websites about how unfair their reputation is.

Is it? Does anyone have any experience of this breed? Can they be great family pets?

I think they do tend to be anxious dogs so more prone to separation anxiety - one of the main reasons people abandon dogs in my experience working with rescue centres. This, plus they are often bought by people with less money (who may later find themselves with even less money or in a housing situation in which they cannot provide for a dog) is maybe why so many are in rescue centres.

They are in rescues because of utter knobheads who either:

A: Are sheep and believe the negativity before they have even bothered to come to their own conclusion
B: Get them hoping for a snarling bastard and all they get is a soft lump who wants to sleep and fart all the time
C: They manage to tap into the SBTs nature of wanting to please and be good for their owners, but then they cant be arsed with them so they hand over a broken damaged dog for someone else to try and sort out

I see a poster has commented on how they wouldnt let their child be friends with someone who had an SBT. To you I say I wouldnt let YOUR child be friends with mine if they have a parent who makes screaming assumptions about others. Woudl make me wonder WTF else you are weird about and the whole friendship would just be too much like hard work.

also, the majority of dog attacks are reported to be by "staffie-type" dogs.

Can someone please tell me what this breed is as I have never heard of a Staffie-Type. is it a new breed?

Don't forget that the media have invested massively in the staffies are dangerous discourse...

WARNING - the links have some really not very nice pictures of injured children. (oh and a lot are from the mail as it seems to like reporting on dog attacks)

This is a story about an attack by a collie illustrated with snarling staffy photos.

Another collie, this time illustrated by a collie doing a play bow.

Yet another collie with a picture of a lovely looking dog.

Labrador this time, but another stock photo of a meek looking dog.

And finally a staffy, notice the stock photo is nowhere near as nice as the collie or lab.

None of them are photos of the actual dog involved, so they're being picked on purpose to represent a dog after an attack...and notice that with the collies and the lab it's stated what good family pets they are regarded to be by experts, but these are the same experts that also recommend staffies and that's never mentioned.