abused dog Liam needs help

My friends, take a look at this:

http://www.examiner.com/article/abused-dog-liam-needs-help

Oh, poor little thing!

That's actually a good way of describing them - 'bully dogs'. It's not the dogs that are the problem, it's the bullies and thugs who have made them dangerous.

Difficult. Some dogs are suspect, and more easily open to becoming dangerous if they themselves are abused, or perhaps even not. I don't really know. No dog that I have ever owned has ever been abused, but I wouldn't turn my back on my lovely Romulus around small children. He doesn't even know what children are, or how cruel they can be.
I once had a really sweet Afghan put down because she badly bit a child's face. The child in question had stuck a pencil up the nose of the dog, but that isn't the point. Dogs can do so much damage.
None of my dogs ever bit one of my children, but then my children, on pain of death, never hurt one of my dogs. I did have several at the time, and the most dangerous of those was my Pekinese. He could inflict a nasty nip if pushed.

And you see, if children or people start screaming, then this can set off a dodgy dog because they often don't understand who they should be defending.
But the bottom line is The Jaw. Pit Bulls, Staffordshire Terriers, Mastiffs, and Shar Peis have terrifying jaws. They should not be left loose around people under any circumstances.
And I certainly wouldn't be raising money to amputate the leg of a dog to keep it alive. I wouldn't even do that for my own much loved dog.

I think there are quite a few places in the US that have the knowledge and experience to sort out these dogs, Sabot, if they are not too far gone?

But that's a very good point about the jaws - an awful lot of people don't realise they don't bite, they lock their jaws and pull, which is why they can cause such horrific injuries.

Really, anyone who wants a dog to intimidate people shouldn't be allowed to have one to begin with.

No, Bonny, they don't bite. They lock on and rip and tear. I have seen mine at it when I had two of them. Two of them locked on to each other's throats is not funny. But fortunately they were at an impasse because neither of them would let go. And of course, Shar Peis have lots of spare skin, so mostly no great harm done because neither of them could actually pull anything. It might even have been funny, if I was short of a laugh.
But the thought of that with small children makes me feel ill.

As it happens, Shar Peis have a reputations for loving people. ORLY. They were bred to fight two thousand years ago, and believe me, they haven't lost the instinct. Although I am not sure if he would defend me, but he sounds as though he might.

But people have got to get real with dogs. They are still basically wild animals, some more easily trained to behave than others are. You have to know your own dog, but don't ever tell me that a dog of any kind won't attack a human, because given the right circumstances it will. Even you, it's owner.