AAS has been the target of anger by the very people who are uneducatable on this issue. The complainers are the very people who call themselves "rescuers" but cannot deal with all the Rottweilers and Pit bulls that they claim to speak for when they berate AAS for wanting to do the only thing that will end the cruel lives that Pit bulls and Rottweilers live... being cycled over and over, from chain to chain, to pound to pound, and then finally, death, the end of the cycle for so many.
There is no real Pit bull rescue. There is no real Rottweiler rescue. There are people who claim to do this, but there are too many Rottweilers and Pit bulls being passed around and dumped at pounds, including SPCA pounds, for anyone to save more than a very few.
There are too many unwanted Pit bulls and Rottweilers; they are too risky and so very few "rescuers" will actually take a Pit bull or a Rottweiler. AAS probably takes more Rottweilers and Shepherds and big crosses than anyone else in dog rescue.
Formerly, it was German Shepherds and Dobermans that were the breed of choice for guarding. But they were bred to bite once and stop, and in the past decade, they have been re-bred for companionship traits and are very rehabilitatable and rehomable, and there are two very legitimate women rescuing them, as does AAS.
But Pit bulls are deliberately bred to hang on until the death; Rottweilers less so, but as a rescuer who has dealt with many Rottweilers, I know that they too tend to do more damage than Shepherds and Dobermans, whose breeding has been modified in the past decade to make them less reactive.
For any problem to be solved, the root of the problem must be identified, understood and then acted on.
The root problem that dog rescuers cannot fix no matter how fast they pedal, is that our society, thanks to the SPCA and politicians avoiding the back-lash from uncomprehending dog lovers (like AAS gets), is awash in dangerous dog. Pit bulls are mostly owned by the criminal and lower classes. Rottweilers were not bred for fighting so they are much more trainable and predictable, but nevertheless, because they are bred for protection, are massively built, and have jaws with 2000 lbs per square inch power, they are the dog that is being used more and more as a guard. AAS is the only organization that documents this and anyone who denies it is uninformed. Anyone who works at an SPCA or a pound and denies this, is lying.
AAS refuses to be silent and go on rescuing only a few of these dogs, forever. Only by looking squarely at root causes will the suffering of protection/fighting breeds stop. Only by dealing effectively with root causes will there not be another child slowly ripped to death.