Pit Bull Enters Home Attacking Teen, Dogs
KIROtv.com - Seattle,WA,USA - A pit bull charged into a south sound home near Ethel on Friday night coming after 19-year-old Jennifer Lee and killing her shih tzu.

Victims: Dog Attack Was Unprovoked
Kansas City Channel.com - Kansas City,MO,USA - A late afternoon jog turned into a battle of life and death for a Jackson County couple on Monday. The husband had to choke to death a 200-pound mastiff after it mauled his wife and then went after him. (See photo.)

Toledo mom pleads no contest after boy's foot gnawed by pit bull
WTOL - Toledo,OH,USA - The mother of a 4-year-old Toledo boy whose foot was mauled by the family's pit pull puppy has pleaded no contest and found guilty of child endangering.

Edward Gierlach, 91, of Iosco Township, Michigan, and Cheryl Harper, 56, of Fowlerville, Michigan, were killed in separate attacks by a group of bulldogs on September 13, 2007. Ten bulldogs were seized by Livingston County Animal Control officers after the deadly attacks. The dogs belonged to a neighboring farm, according to police.

There have been 23 canine homicides in the USA in 2007 so far. Of these, only 5 have been in states that have substantially repealed the ancient one-bite rule. Three of the 5 deaths have been in Illinois, one of the 27 statutory liability states; only 2 have been in the other 26 statutory liability states.

Lylie Cox, a 4-month-old girl, was mauled to death by a 120-pound Rottweiler Wednesday afternoon during a party at a home attended mostly by teenagers. The girl and her 17-year-old mother resided in Warren, Illinois. The incident happened at a party in Warren. (Read the article.)

A 19-year-old male brought his Rottweiler to the party. The male had the 2-year-old dog for only a month. It had been a stray and was known to show aggressive tendencies toward children. A friend had put the baby on the floor, where the Rottweiler attacked it. Many people tried to get the baby from the jaws of the dog, but the dog would not stop shaking and biting the child until she was dead.

Rottweilers and pit bulls account for more than half of all canine homicides in recent years. This was the 21st canine homicide in the USA during 2007. It is only the fifth in a strict liability state.

Zachary King Sr., 30, was charged with manslaughter in Hennepin County, Minnesota, because his pit bull, which he kept chained in his basement, killed his 7-year-old son, Zachary King. The dog bit the child on the throat with such force that his vertebra was severed -- if the dog then had pulled, the child's head would have come off. (For details about that case, see my earlier post, Chained Male Pit Bull Kills Its Owners Child.)

Emphasizing why he needs to be punished for this killing, Mr. King put the blame on Michael Vick, the disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback who recently plead guilty to crimes involving dog fighting. "Just because Michael Vick and all this pit bull stuff going on ... they want to make a big issue over it. I don't know what's going on," he said. (See the story on the website of KARE-11.)

Mr. King has to be punished for ignoring the fact that his pit bull had already bitten this little boy, who had a scar on his lip -- had already bitten the man who installed a fence, resulting in a $22,000 settlement -- and was kept chained, which is known to make dogs aggressive toward people. (See Why Dogs Bite People on www.dogbitelaw.com.)

Kressie Warren's 6-year-old son Scott (pictured, left) died Friday after the family's pit bull attacked him as he played with his 13-year-old sister.

Warren said the dog has never been aggressive and the attack came without warning.

"He loved them kids, and I just didn't see it coming," Warren said. "I always said it wouldn't happen to me. But if there's any parents out there that's got these dogs and got children, get rid of them."

Scott's funeral is set for Wednesday. (Reported by KXAS-TV—Dallas/Fort Worth, TX.)

On August 31, 2007, 6-year-old Scott Warren of Dallas was killed by his family's pet pit bull. The boy's parents described the dog as having never given any signs of being vicious. The child died one day before the effective date of a new law that could have resulted in his parents going to jail for 20 years. See my posts about the new Texas law, below, and also see my Texas page, which has extended analysis of this new law.

With 7 canine homicides so far this year, Texas continues to lead the USA. Texas has been the location of 7 out of the nation's 20 deaths, an entirely disproportionate and disgraceful statistic.

Generally, the 18 one-bite states, and the 5 states that have dog bite statutes which substantially incorporate the one-bite rule, have been the location of 16 of the USA's canine-inflicted homicides this year. In the other 27 states, there have been only 4 deaths caused by dogs.

Clearly, the one-bite states need to enact strict liability dog bite statutes. I have developed model dog bite laws which will be on the Dog Bite Law website in the next couple of weeks. (To learn what type of law applies in your state, see Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA, and to read about the individual canine homicides during the past year, see the Canine Homicides section of Dangerous and Vicious Dogs.)