One big problem with people humanizing dogs, is that they're surprised when a dog actually acts like one. I feel bad for the guy; but how was the dog supposed to know he was trying to help the owner? The dog was probably already distressed from seeing his owner drop, then a stranger appears (to the dog) to attack him. Pretty much any breed is going to have some defensive drive, this one just had the capability to do some damage. I'm not "making excuses" for the dog, but if I ever have to perform cpr or the heimlich in the future, I'll make sure to secure any dogs first.
As far as Pitbulls in the news goes, they're the EBR of the dog world. They make good headlines, so when there's a Pitbull bite it gets reported. When you look at the number of bites annually, you have to consider the number of the dogs that there actually are. About 3 million dogs are put down in shelters every year. A low estimate is that about a third of them are Pit/ Pit mixes, or just wrongly identified. So if around a million Pits are put down in shelters every year, what percentage of Pits end up in shelters? If its 10% that means there are 10 million Pits in the U.S. I have a hard time believing that 10% of any breed ends up in a shelter. Dogsbite.org is a hardcore anti bull breed site. Think million mom march of the dog world.
Unfortunately, Bull breeds are the current status symbol dog. In the 70's it was the GSD, then it was the Doberman, then the Rottweiller. In the early 90's Bullys got the nod, and they've had it longer then any other breed. Recently there's been some movement to athletic breed mastiffs, the Cane Corso, Presa Canario, etc. Same type of look; but even bigger and flashier. The only reason they haven't taken the crown faster is the higher price of admission. That's changing as more are making their way into petstores and turned into puppy mills. People unfortunately don't put any thought into what the breed of dog they think is cool looking, or cute, was actually created to do. Sally gets upset when her Jack Russell tears a cat to shreds, Bob gets annoyed when his Border Collie keeps nipping at his kids while herding them somewhere. We spent a couple hundred years hardwiring dogs to do specific things, if there's not a concentrated effort to breed those instincts out, they stay.
I read recently (I can't remember where; but I'll try to find it) that it takes 7 generations of targeted breeding to lock in, or remove a drive in a dog. With actual breeds that have entered the show world, that effort has been going on for a while. I have a show line Staffordshire Bull Terrier. No one in his pedigree from the late 30's on was used as anything other then a show dog/pet; but before that it was 100+ generations of gladiators. He's always happy, loves everyone he sees to an almost embarrassing degree, and is eager to meet every dog he sees. He's been gone after by Pugs, Shih Tzus, Corgis, Labs, a seeing eye dog, and last week a Basset Hound. Doesn't even occur to him that maybe he should do something about it. However, he is big dog reactive. He had a 140# Bull Mastiff/Ridgeback go after him, and it was the only time he's responded. I got into this breed knowing full well the possible downsides to it. I socialized the crap out of him when he was young; but knew that at some point after he hit adulthood I'd find out what his adult tolerance of other dogs was. My Corso was easy, he got into his first scrap when he was 9 months old. After that I knew he was reactive. He'd never start anything; but wouldn't hesitate a second if teeth were bared. I took care of it by just being aware of other dogs' body language and avoiding them if they were likely to start trouble. With my Stafford it was tougher, he made it to almost 3 before I got to know for sure if he'd react to anything. It was actually a relief finally finding out what I had to watch for. That's the thing with any breed, knowing what to watch for. A juvenile Aussie could sever a toddler's achilles like nothing just trying to herd, pretty much any terrier can be nippy, Labs don't socialize and train themselves. I've had more issues with Labs then any other breed.
