The tragic mauling deaths of a baby and toddler has reignited the debate about whether pitbulls should be kept as pets.
Hollace Dean Bennard, five-months-old, and Lilly Jane Bennard, two-years-old, were attacked by their family’s two pitbulls in Shelby County, Tennessee last week.
Their mother, Kirstie Jane Bennard, 30, was seriously wounded and has an “uncountable amount of stitches and bite marks over her entire body, including her face” from trying to stop the vicious attack.
The two pitbulls, Cheech and Mia, were euthanised the next day.
The notion that pitbulls are too dangerous to have as pets has been long debated.
New data published in August revealed 628 children were admitted to Sydney Children’s Hospital with dog-related injuries from 2010 to 2020.
The average patient’s age was just five years old and the pitbull was the most common attacker making up 10.3 per cent of cases, followed by labradors (8.5 per cent) and rottweilers (6.8 per cent).
The average clinical cost per dog bite injury was $2968.
In the first three months of this year, there were 1027 reported dog bites and 69 canines euthanised in NSW alone.
news.com.au readers expressed their horror at the fatal dog attack in Tennessee, with some stating it’s impossible to ignore the statistics when it comes to deciding whether the breed is inherently dangerous or not.
Others said that no matter the breed, children and dogs do not mix.
“Anyone who chooses to have them, especially around children, are fools in my opinion. This is such a sad story, and the worst way imaginable to learn that pitbulls are not a good idea,” wrote one reader on Facebook, gaining hundreds of likes in support.
Another person described the breed as “killers”.
“No dog is completely trustworthy around children no matter what the breed. As much as I love my two sweet French Bulldogs, I still don’t trust them or leave them alone around my grandchildren, you just never know,” wrote someone else.
“No dog is trustworthy simple as that! I have dogs and will never fully trust them, natural instincts can kick in at anything for whatever reason,” said another.
Some readers were quick to defend the breed.
“Always blaming the breed but never the owner. What about all of the heroic ones that have saved their owners and human siblings? What about all the ones that have been raised with love and not violence?” wrote one person.
“Please don’t start breed of dog hating! Something is seriously wrong here!” said another.
The Tennesse family’s pitbulls were reportedly never aggressive before the attack.
“I can promise you those children were her world, and if there was any inkling of danger, she would have never had those dogs near her kids,” the devastated mother’s friend Kelsey Canfield told Fox News.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are against banning of particular dog breeds as “all dogs, including pitbulls, are individuals” and should be treated as such.
Its position is that responsible ownership is the most appropriate action for stamping out dangerous dogs across various breeds.
ASPCA does say despite best efforts there will always be dangerous dogs that need to be properly cared for and controlled to reduce risk.
Former US president Barack Obama made a statement in 2013 opposing legislation that would restrict ownership of dogs by breed, with pitbulls the most common target.
“We don’t support breed-specific legislation – research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources,” he said.
Back in Australia, the RSCPA does not support breed-specific legislation as it too “considers that any dog of any size, breed or mix of breeds may be dangerous and thus dogs should not be declared dangerous on the basis of breed or appearance.”
This stance is supported by the Australian Veterinary Association.
Restricted dog breeds in Australia include the American pitbull terrier or pitbull terrier, dogo Argentino, fila Brasileiro, Japanese tosa and Perro de Presa Canario or Presa Canario.
In Victoria, owners can face up to 10 years jail if their restricted dog kills someone or up to five years if their dog endangers someone’s life.