Tink has been mistaken for a pit bull on many occasions (particularly when she's "smiling") and the fact that she's white probably has a lot to do with it. I can also see how people might mistake a boxer with cropped ears for a Pit bull aswell. But any breed "bigotry" annoys me so much. 99% of all Pit Bulls I've ever come across have been gorgeous - it's stupid owners who buy them to look "hard" or "rough" that give them a bad name. Same with Rottweilers. Tink's best friend is a Rotti, twice her size, but Tink is by far the dominant dog.
As for ignorant strangers, I had one woman in the park come up to me and tell me that Tink was "required by law" to be muzzled. Ehh, sorry to disappoint you, but no she's not.
I have also noticed that more children in general these days seem to be afraid of dogs than when I was small. When I'm walking Tink I have noticed children cringing away from her before she has even looked at them, or have had kids practically climbing up their parents' legs to get away from "the dog". My theory on why this is works out as follows:
1) When I was a child (I'm 25 now) we were literally out playing in the street all day every day during the summer holidays. Rounders, tennis, Kick the Can, football - if it wasn't raining, we were out.
2) Parents these days just don't let their children out unsupervised, for various reasons - concerns about injuries, traffic, "stranger danger", whatever.
3) People also used to let their dogs roam the neighbourhood during the day when I was young - we knew every dog around by name, and they often followed us around on our "adventures". Thus, even if your family didn't have a dog, there were always dogs around to play with.
4) No-one lets their dog roam free these days (myself included - I would NEVER let Tink out on her own for fear she'd be hit by a car, be stolen, be attacked by another dog, be poisoned, get lost, etc. etc. etc.!) So basically, if kids don't have a dog in their family, they're never exposed to them and so never learn not to be afraid of them.
Bit of a long post, sorry, but would anyone else agree?