It is unfortunate. You're right, logistically it's impossible to screen people. Technically you could do criminal background checks, but I don't know if animal

It is unfortunate. You're right, logistically it's impossible to screen people. Technically you could do criminal background checks, but I don't know if animal rescues have the resources for that; or what the blow back would be. And even then, like you said, these people could be rehabilitated and just want a dog -- which in itself can be therapeutic. It's complex. I call all of the pit bull breeds pit bulls (or pits or pibbles) despite the definition being vague. It'd be a bit awkward to walk around in public and say, "check out that Staffordshire bull terrier." I just think lumping all the breeds into one group when citing bite statistics is misleading.