" Blame dog's owner"
Published in Goldstream Gazette on Mar 31, 2004
Story URL: http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?cat=48&paper=12&id=212033

Blame dog's owner

Few news stories of late have sickened us as much as last week's pit bull terrier attack on a guide dog in Victoria. Most sickening of all was the news that police do not contemplate any charges.
How about criminal negligence?
Someone was ostensibly in charge of the attacking animal and negligently let it loose.
According to the news story, the woman who was looking after the offending pit bull (and another one) was crying and apologetic after the ordeal. She deserves credit for that. But she should still be charged.
We're sick of reading about vicious dog attacks and the lame excuses that typically follow. Stop if you've heard it all before - it's not the dog's fault, it's the owner's.
OK. Let's put that to the test and make the owners of vicious dogs accountable. Maybe if a few of these dog owners spent a little well-publicized time in jail the cachet of owning such dogs will disappear.
After a little Internet surfing on this subject, we've come to a few conclusions. Fanciers of certain dog breeds get a little snarly when anyone proposes restrictions on ownership of their favourite breeds. Sure - any dog can bite, but it's difficult to imagine a toy poodle chewing someone's face off.
Just for fun, we Googled "pit bull attack" and found 2,640 hits. "Poodle attack" registered 30; "collie attack," 20. Even "Rottweiler attack" only had 266 hits.
That might just mean that "pit bull" attacks get more press - that, as their fanciers claim, the dogs are victims of canine racism.
Frankly, we're not as concerned about canine rights as we are about the rights of people to walk along the street and not be attacked. That could have been anyone walking his dog, not just a visually impaired person.
Fortunately, cases of severe injury or death from dog attacks are rare. Recent Canadian statistics are hard to come by, but figures from the U.S. show about 10 to 20 dog-attack-related deaths a year. That puts the risk in the same ballpark as death by lightning strike.
Dog bites do, however, account for about one per cent of hospital admissions. So it's a problem that must addressed.
Too often the solution is to destroy the offending dog, leaving the owner free to repeat the problem.
If responsible dog owners don't want their freedoms curtailed, they must back strict measures to deal severely with irresponsible owners.