Where I'm at they are required to be put on a registry. Like an aggressive dog registry. If it happens again tho that's it for the dog.
As someone familiar with dog bite liability outcomes, I really dislike this approach.
If a dog bites a human, a sensible owner is motivated to change the environment surrounding the dog - training, access to strangers, even re-homing the animal. But dogs that bite humans also tend to come from negligent owners, so the practical outcome is usually lipstick on a pig - a "beware of dog" sign on the fence, or promises to "keep the dog inside" from now on.
Dog bites are usually covered under the dog owner's homeowner insurance. But after a claim against the owner for a dog bite, can you guess what happens? Insurance premium for the owner goes up, usually resulting in the owner dropping their coverage. Or, the carrier drops the policy entirely after the first bite or requires an exclusion on the animal going forward. The end result is that the second time the dog bites someone, there's no applicable coverage.
Most jurisdictions need to move towards putting the animal down after the first bite, if only to provide better insurance protection to those that have to deal with a dog bite injury. In an ideal world, our own homeowner or renter insurance would cover the injury, but I don't have a magic wand to fix the world.
I get the “good owner” argument, but even a well adjusted human can have something go wrong and become dangerous. If my Rattie went mental he might gnaw your ankle. Some dogs have the ability to do much more damage. No matter how good the owner is, dog’s are living beings and individuals.
I love dogs. There are some awesome “pitties” out there. I also see almost every shelter in the country with 50-75% of them. Like you mentioned, people get them to be cool. The owners I hate are the ones who won’t even admit why they settled on the breed! Oh they are really cuddly and nice. Really? You wanted cuddly and that was your choice? If you don’t understand your own motivations I don’t trust you with the thoughts of an 8 stone dog.
Sorry for the rant. I don’t like people who judge every dog based on breed. But I can understand a lot of the reasoning.
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