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Get a pit and you never know what is lurking in it's deep background. Get a pit at the flea market and plan to use it as a fighting dog? You'll probably be sadly mistaken. But by the same token, there's a small chance it could be a ticking time-bomb in that pit that will one day make it attack and kill your other dog.
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This is the salient point that many of us try to convey in PitBull discussions.
Genetics and breeding are HUGE factors in dogs. My contention is that breed has more to do with behavior, temperament and character traits than looks do. The look or outer appearance give us clues about what genetic material may inside the dog, but looks along cannot tell the entire story.
People create breeds for certain purposes. A lot of trial, error and heartbreak goes into creating a breed with specific behavior traits. Once established, those traits ebb and flow through the "breed" based on the expertise (or lack thereof) from the breeder.
Random or uneducated breeding is a crapshoot. Mixing breeds is an even bigger crapshoot. With some mixes, the result is not all that important; with many domestic breeds, mixing is certainly not dangerous. Mixing Pit Fighter genetics with whatever can absolutely be dangerous.
Earl_Basset is correct- The PitBull 'breed' or type of dog should have stayed a niche breed relegated to the fighting culture. The current "Pitbull" breed contains tons of dogs who are not real fighters but are potentially dangerous for a variety of (genetic) reasons.