in my opinion for those people who wants to adopt a older dog (from the age 1 1/2 to 17 years old ) should go through a length dog interview - interrogation with more questions, not such as if you have a backyard, or whatever.
suppose if that breed for whatever reasons and attack a child what will the new owner handle this situation? - make the new owner to THINK TWICE before adopt the dogs.
and additional, in my opinion - i think those breed or animals control should go through the credit report/background report/property check. I have met many people who adopts the dogs without telling the truth, and they don't keep the dogs longer than what they expect.
why credit report? i've notice plenty of people who adopt the various dogs down here - ends up back into animals shelter because they couldn't afford to buy the dog foods, toys, crater, n etc.
why property check? to ensure the property fits teh dogs needs - for example - german shepherd loves to run in distance - that type fo dog can jump very high to make sure that there's at least 6ft of fence. and who resides in that property n etc
why background check? - to identity the owner and his/her history.
if the owner got a bad drivign record like - chasing in the highway.
why would they want to let the owner who chase in the highway to adopt a dog? what if the dog got into attack and the owner don't know what to do and decide to leave the scene and drive off without return back.
there's more than that.
I often dislike people who are con (got out from jail) and adopt the dogs for their protection purposes or do some revenage attack to the others.
Most population in California - mexcian people often adopt the pitbulls - they have their own philosophy for having a pitbulls as dog fighter not house watch, company, n etc.
a friend of mine who is struggling to keep her beloved pitbull who refuses cooperate with any people except for my friend. We both did research, and contact the pitbull breeders, the animals shelter, APT AKC, n etc - We found more details how to raise and take care of pitbulls than what the breed dog book often explain.
ie. that APT book does not tell the new owner that pitbulls REQUIRES 16 hours of attention, if they do not receive that amount of attentions, their behavior will change suddenly, and turn into aggressive and crave for attention.
as i learn - the pitbulls is very "determine" dogs. They refuses to give up their own goals. Once they start they will continue to finish off. For example - I've gave my pitbulls the used tire which's 36 inches - once they start and they finish the tire into hundred of pieces.
I have a 13 years old (pitbull and sharpei) mixed. I had her when I was 10 years old and to now (still) I couldn't thank enough to anyone for her. I love her to death, she knows 25 sign language words. She is the one most loyalty dog that I ever have. Sometime people will ask me what type of that kind of dog, I'd tell 'em pitbullxsharpei - they often overreact and few minutes they realized that they were over-reacted even though my dog doesn't look like a pitbull.