Last Saturday, three rottweilers mauled an angel-faced New Brunswick boy to death. The dogs, which belonged to a friend of the boy's father, weighed 65 kilograms each; the four-year-old was about 40 kg.
The rottweilers were running loose in the back yard. James Waddell opened the door, stepped outside and was ripped to pieces. The boy's father, Ron, and the friend were in the basement at the time. Police said the attack would probably be ruled an accident.
The horrifying tale has, as each one before it, renewed the debate over banning specific breeds of dogs. It's a passionate argument with many sides. Some dog lovers, who would rather be safe than sorry, would never allow one of the breeds commonly regarded as vicious into their home, particularly with children about. Others staunchly defend pit bulls and rottweilers, acting surprised each time one tears a kid to shreds. Some cite dog owners as much of a problem as the dogs themselves.
"We're talking about isolated incidents," said Gary Gibson, a canine behavioural expert from Vancouver. "This is a horrendous incident with this boy. It will feed the fire of people who want to get rid of this particular breed, but it won't address the problem. People will go out and get different breeds and they'll become the problem and they'll have to ban them until we're down to chihuahuas."
After Winnipeg banned pit bulls in 1991, the average number of attacks by those dogs dropped to one or two from an average of 25.
"It's nowhere near what it used to be," said Tim Dack, chief operating officer of the city's animal services. "But you see some of the other breeds on the rise, replacing the gap left by the pit bull. Rottweilers seem to be the breed of choice in Winnipeg, and we're seeing more bites from them and rottweiler crosses."
He said the city is not currently considering widening the ban to cover other types of dogs.
In the United States, nearly 100 communities have banned pit bulls, rottweilers or both. Europeans are much less tolerant of the breeds -- whole countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Holland and the Netherlands, have banned one or the other or both. Puerto Rico has also banned the dogs; New Zealand is considering it.
But Mr. Gibson said breed banning is unrealistic.
"If you try to ban people who have martial arts training from being out on the street because one person with martial arts once [hurt someone], that's inappropriate," he said. "You have to look at every dog as an individual. If you ban rottweilers, then you have to ban German shepherds. And even golden retrievers bite kids. We have aggression in every breed. It's just that the type of bites and the seriousness of the bites are more connected to rottweilers and pit bulls. These dogs don't bite and run away. They seriously attack."
Dr. Moe Milstein, a veterinarian in North Vancouver, is alarmed by how easily everyone involved in a dog's upbringing blames someone else. "It's always someone else's fault, but everyone who has anything to do with that dog, from the humane society to the vet to the owner, is responsible. Excuses should not be accepted and punishments have not been strict enough."
He said rottweilers are far more dangerous than the average breed; he admits that he is nervous treating most of them and often insists on a muzzle. "There's a minority that are gentle that I trust," Dr. Milstein said. "With the rest, I'm very cautious and scared. It's hard for vets because we have to pretend otherwise."
According to a Canadian study, the most common biters are German shepherds, cocker spaniels, rottweilers and golden retrievers.
But in the United States, legislation considers pit bulls, including American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, American pit bull terriers, rottweilers, Presa Canarios, Japanese Tosas, Fila Brasileiros and any wolf-dog mixture, the most dangerous.
Health Canada says more than half of all dog-bite victims are younger than 18; boys 5 to 9 are most at risk. In the United States, dogs bite more than 4.7 million people each year; 800,000 require medical attention; 20 die. Canada averages one death a year. And more than half of fatal attacks are by pit bulls and rottweilers.
