 |
| Pit bulls account for most fatal attacks on humans |
Bill Tieleman's 24 Hours Vancouver / The Tyee column
Tuesday January 5, 2016
By Bill Tieleman
"It was worse than a horror movie. It was like something
out of a nightmare. There was blood absolutely everywhere."
- Sheryl Elgie, daughter of pit bull attack victim Robin
Elgie
Five people in British Columbia have been viciously attacked by
pit bull and Rottweiler dogs in five days -- two very seriously injured -- and
yet not one provincial or municipal elected official dares to speak out on the
obvious need to protect the public.
Is it not overwhelmingly obvious when Robin Elgie lies in a
hospital bed facing the possible amputation of both hands after two pit bulls
invaded his Fort St. John home on Christmas and ripped him to shreds in what he
called
"a shark attack" before RCMP shot them -- that something must be
done?
Is it not obscene that after Kati Mather received 100 bites, a
separated bicep and fractured arm from a Rottweiler-Husky cross breed attack
while defending her three-year-old nephew in a Richmond park, no elected
representative calls for new laws?
Three other people were also attacked in the two incidents,
suffering serious bites.
So does a child have to be killed by a dangerous dog and the
public totally outraged before politicians finally find the courage to act?
I deeply fear that is likely, because elected officials appear
to be more afraid of dog owners and their fearsome lobbying organizations that
fight proposed laws restricting pit bulls and other dangerous breeds than they
are of a fatal dog attack.
Echoing past BC attacks
Neither B.C. nor Canada keep detailed statistics on dangerous
dog attacks that identify breeds, but in the United States in 2015 there were
at least 32 human fatalities, with the majority coming from pit bulls, followed
by Rottweilers and other breeds or mixed breeds, according to the advocacy
group Dogbites.org,
which meticulously documents each attack.
In 2014, the last year with complete statistics, there were 42
U.S. dog attack fatalities.
Sixty-four per cent, or 27 attacks, were by pit bulls and 10 per cent, or four
attacks, were by Rottweilers -- meaning three-quarters came from just those two
breeds. The numbers are similar for previous years.
It's why groups like BanPitBulls.org
call for breed specific legislation in both the U.S. and Canada.
The group points out that between 2007 and 2014, pit bull
attacks in the U.S. rose by an astonishing 773 per cent and that most
fatalities are children.
That has very nearly happened several times in B.C. already.
In January 2015, a six-year-old Vancouver girl was attacked in Crab
Park by a pit bull, requiring 14 stitches to her face and leg, with her mother telling me
exclusively that the dog came at them "like a shark."
And a New Westminster woman suffered
"life changing" facial injuries when a pit bull attack sent her to
hospital in July 2015, while a man in the same apartment was also bitten.
New Westminster had previously repealed bylaws restricting pit
bull and other breeds. Despite the July attack, a spokesperson told me
that month there were "no plans" to reinstate the vicious dog bylaw.
A nine-year-old girl in Penticton was also the victim of an
unprovoked pit bull attack
in June 2015, requiring five stitches on her arm when the dog lunged for her
face.
These are just the human attacks in B.C. -- many helpless pet
dogs and cats have been killed by raging pit bull attacks.
A man whose cocker spaniel puppy was allegedly "ripped
apart" by a pit bull in June 2015 is suing
its owners, alleging they failed to muzzle the dog as ordered by the City of
Vancouver after it had previously attacked a small dog. He's also suing the
City for not having the pit bull euthanized as a dangerous animal. None of the
allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court.
'They just ate him'
It's not just this province -- a 22-year-old man in Lancashire,
England was mauled to death
by his own pit bull cross on Jan. 1, 2016.
The same day police in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania shot a pit
bull attacking
a 10-year-old boy outside his apartment after Tasering the dog failed.
On Jan. 2 in Big Bend, Wisconsin, four people including one
child were sent to hospital
after a pit bull attack.
And on Dec. 2, 2015 in Detroit, four-year-old Xavier Strickland
was killed
by four pit bulls while walking on a residential street with his mother.
"They pulled him from me and (dragged) him under the fence.
They just ate him," said Lucille Strickland. The dogs had previously
gotten loose and attacked children, the Detroit News reported.
Bring on the ban
While most jurisdictions look the other way, Winnipeg has banned
pit bulls since 1990 and Ontario
since 2005 -- with significant drops in dog bite attacks, while Burnaby has
upheld strong restrictions on "vicious dogs" that include muzzling in
public and higher licensing fees.
To be clear, no pit bulls were killed in Winnipeg or Ontario
under the ban, but they were not allowed to breed and no new dogs can be
imported.
Pit bull owners and organizations are very aggressive in
opposing such laws and angry each time I write about them, with responses
ranging from polite to obscene
and some bordering on threatening.
We have an obvious problem in B.C. with ongoing dangerous dog
attacks injuring children, adults and pets. We also have a clear solution --
legislation to ban the breeds most responsible for fatal and serious injuries
that has worked elsewhere.
What we don't have is the political will to stand up for the
silent majority of British Columbians who want dangerous dog breeds banned.
Let's not wait for a child to be killed before politicians
finally take action.
Tell them to do it now, before it's too late.
.
