At one point, the reporter, the photographer, and the Mastiff, were all in close proximity with no barriers in between, no muzzle on the dog, and the dog held only on a leash by the owner - with difficulty. An ominous remark such as "if you get within six feet he will attack" was uttered. If that was really the case I don't know if you are aware of the danger you all were in and how lucky you were to walk away from it. Let me share a story with you:

While I was in the Turkish Armed Forces I was working with such dogs. My job was to de-program, dogs that had been programmed to be unsocial, and in some cases to attack and kill humans... and if successful, find someone who could home these type of dogs. I usually worked with Anatolian Shepherds, but there were also Mastiffs, Presna, Dogo Argentinos I sometimes had to deal with.

The program was built on spending time with the dog assigned to you 24/7. Eat, sleep, work, even go to the bathroom together. One day when I was working on the roof of a building with a dog assigned to me, overlooking a large courtyard, I suddenly saw a Mastiff break loose from his handler, run across the yard directly at an officer, who was crossing the yard - unaware of what was happening. I yelled at a Gunnery Sergeant nearby, who was armed and alerted him about the situation developing in a matter of seconds. He immediately took out his machine pistol and rattled a series of shots at the dog, in vain. The Mastiff got to the officer, jumped at his throat, killed him instantly and then ran back to the handler and collapsed. After close inspection we found out the Gunny had not missed, as initially was the consensus, but had put six bullets into the Mastiff.

I am telling you this story to draw your attention to the fact, on how dangerous and indestructible and determined these dogs are, once they are on a mission, and how helpless the victims are even in a secure environment, let alone questionable backyards in the middle of a city.

These dogs have no place in society. They are true killers, and under no circumstances should be part of it. They are extremely strong, vicious, unpredictable and unstoppable. An owner holding the leash; a person with any kind of weapon; even an experienced handler who does all the right things means nothing to them, if they set their mind to something. Nor does a fence.. Given enough reason, I have seen some break through a six foot wooden fence by crashing through it with their chests as if it was made out of matchsticks. They do not distinguish between child, adult, male , female.

Noted New York dog behaviourist, Sue Sternberg, and others, say that banning the breed is not the answer. I disagree. A broad spectrum ban, indicating that any Mastiff, Bull Terrier derivative is prohibited will clean out society of a wide range of "Killer Dogs". They have no purpose in our world. Most are in very questionable homes and hands.

Mastiffs and derivatives go all the way back to Roman times, and based on scripts from that time, the only reason they were bred is to kill humans. They are the only dog breed that has been bred to take down humans.

As much as breeders want to claim that over time they have fine tuned the temperament, I insist that these are not the type of dogs with which chances can be taken... and as much as I wish to be proven wrong, another Shenica White is around the corner, and as terrible as that one ended, the next one could surpass even that incident .

We cannot carry guns in this country, and if we want to then we have to have a good reason... and even after that things are made very difficult for us to obtain and carry one. I see these types of dogs as loaded guns carried without a permit, and the law must subject owners to the same regulations and penalties that apply to guns... and if that means banning them then so be it. They are in fact worse than guns. A gun - by itself - is harmless. Such dogs are like guns, who with no intervention, go off by themselves in a deadly way. They are mostly subjected to questionable training practises and are handled poorly. The onus is usually put on a well intentioned but naive if not ignorant or a ill-intentioned and ruthless owner... with an unsuspecting and innocent public as potential victims in the waiting, in this daily Russian Roulette that is being played.

These types of dogs have no place in a society such as ours even as pets, let alone guard or protection dogs. In my book there is no such thing as a guard or protection dog running around unsupervised without a competent handler, in the questionable yard of the average Joe. They are of no use - they are easily surpassed by either a distraction or by simply killing it... on the other hand, because of their vicious nature, the way they have been kept and treated, and because they are left to their own devices without supervision, chances are that they will escape one day, and present a great danger to society [especially children].

I cannot understand what and who the federal, provincial and municipal authorities are protecting by not adopting the appropriate laws in this respect. One thing is for sure though. It is not the innocent majority, who are at peril of being severely maimed or even killed by one of these unfortunate animals.

Ali Yazman
Professional Handler of Dangerous Dogs since 1978