I have had some experience with aggressive dogs and irresponsible owners and when the two get together you have disaster. I have a
recent example. I had a renting neighbor that felt that she MUST have a dog or dogs for her kids. This was a woman that had lost custody of her kids because of drug use. The kids came to visit her on a weekly or every other week. First she had two unaggressive dogs that she kept in a small fenced area, about 10x10. She never went in the fenced area and just poured food and water through the fence. These poor dogs walked in their own poop all day. They never had fresh water. She would go off for days at a time and leave them unfed or watered. If I had not intervened on several occasions the dogs would have died. I called the authorities on several occasions and she was only warned. She then decided to get a Pit Bull. The dog was great with the kids when they were there but on several occasions The kids would get occupied with being kids and the dog would take off a do what ever. It went to my mother-in-law's and came after her. She used to walk to my house through the wooded trails that I had built but became afraid to even get out of her house. It came to my property and attacked me on two occasions. The final blow was it going to another neighbors and killing two of their goats. I live on 20 acres and all my neighbors live
on acreage. We should not live in fear that another neighbor will have
a dog that she will let run unattended. An unattended aggressive dog
at that.

The problem dog became history when another neighbor bought the
property just so he could evict her. That is how I ended up with Rascal my cat. When she moved out she left everything behind and I mean everything. The Neighbor that bought
the property , did it to protect his grandkids that lived through the woods from her
rental property.

What do you do with this dog? Socialize it? There is no defense for this aggressive dog. My mother-in-law did not provoke it, she lives a block away. I did not provoke it, and I'm almost positive the goats did not provoke it. The owner did nothing. She did not get this dog for any other reason than to have it for her kids when they came to visit. She was like a lot of RED NECKS , she had to have a Pit Bull and of course either put it in a small fence or put it on a chain.

There are people that should not have any living thing under their care,
animal or child.