A two-week-old baby was killed by a dog on March 4, 2009, in Mesa, Arizona. Her mother and father are police officers, but they could not save her.

After putting her baby in a low-lying crib, the mother exited the room, and spent a few minutes in the bathroom. The family Chow-Chow killed the child. (Click here for the story.)

My Dog Attack Danger Scale is being supplemented by a sixth danger-sign: the "newness" factor. Statistics compiled by DogsBite.org establish that 20% of fatal dog attacks involved a new person or dog sharing a household for a period of two months or less.

I recommend spending time on DogsBite.org. You might not agree with the site's conclusions about the need to control or even ban pit bulls, but you will not be able to seriously dispute the site's thorough documentation of attacks by dangerous dogs.

In Britain, police will be given new powers to tackle the increased use of dogs as offensive weapons in gang rivalry. There is a flourishing black market trade in pit bulls and other dogs that were banned under an Act of Parliament 18 years ago. Breeders either ignore the ban or attempt to get around the ban by crossing pit bulls with other types, producing larger and more menacing-looking dogs. (Read the article.)

Courts will be able to restrict the movement of gang members, ban them from associating with other members and ban them from being in control of a dog if it is being used to intimidate others or encourage violence. A gang member who breaks the order will face a fine or up to two years in prison.

David Grant, the director of the RSPCA Harmsworth Hospital in North London, said: “I’m a vet, trained to spot the symptoms of disease. I think the dog problem is a symptom of something very wrong with this society. Someone needs to do something about it.”

Bruce Evans shot and killed his wife's and daughter's pit bulls on February 16, 2009, at his home in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The dogs were fighting each other and had bitten the wife and the daughter too. No charges are pending. (Read the article.)

It is difficult to understand the purpose of owning dogs that suddenly decide to kill each other, bite their owners and, in this case, force someone to do something very dangerous. When ordinary citizens have to shoot animals in and around our homes, bystanders can get hurt. Why should the community be forced to live in fear of similar incidents in the future?

I believe that either we control the bad dogs and bad owners, or we ban all dogs that present unreasonable risk. I prefer the former approach but, if lawmakers, animal control authorities and the dog lobby don't have the backbone to pass and enforce the necessary laws, then I recognize that we will have to ban the dogs themselves. For more, see Model Dog Bite Laws.

At the end of January, there were two more deaths that I have not written about until now:

On January 19, 2009, an 8-year-old girl Pennslyvania, Brianna Nicole Shanor, was mauled to death inside her uncle's camper, where he kept a chained-up Rottweiler-mix. Pennsylvania is a strict liability state.

The following factors on the Dog Attack Danger Scale were present:

* Pit bull, Rottweiler, Akita or Chow. In recent memory, Rottweilers and pit bulls have caused most human deaths.

* Chained or tethered. Dogs that are tied up are dangerous. In 2008, 9% of the fatalities involved chained dogs.

"The dog was chained, and she was advised to stay away from the dog. It doesn't sound like there was negligence or criminality," said state police Trooper Matthew Roth.

Ignorance causes unfairness, injury and even death. Roth is wrong: chaining a dog makes it aggressive toward people. Therefore chaining is negligent, which makes this a negligent homicide or "manslaughter."

Also on January 19, 2009, a 3-week-old child died after being mauled in the north-central Illinois community of Bourbonnais. The family dog, a Siberian Husky, had pulled the infant off of a bed in the master bedroom and dragged the child into a hallway. The child suffered multiple bite injuries to the head. Illinois is a strict liability state.

Bond was set at $2500 Tuesday for the owner of two pit bulls that mauled his neighbor so badly she lost part of one leg.

Lee Carroll, 31, of Marion County, Indiana, was arrested Tuesday morning on two counts of failing to restrain his dog causing serious bodily injury and two counts of harboring a nonimmunized dog, both misdemeanors. Farroll could have to pay a fine of up to $5,000 or spend up to a year in prison.

His neighbor Brenda Hill, 68, has been hospitalized since the Jan. 25 attack, when the two dogs broke through Carroll's chain-link fence while Hill was taking out the garbage. Carroll has apologized and said he plans to plead guilty.

Thirty-six-year-old Travis Dean Cunningham, whose two pit bulls mauled a 71-year-old woman near SeaTac, Washington, home last September, has pleaded guilty to possession of a dangerous dog. He also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm.

Prosecutors are recommending an 11-year prison term when he is sentenced March 13 in Seattle.