I do not believe that the owners of really dangerous dogs have any idea what it feels like to be attacked by one of them. Being surrounded by dogs, trying to fend them off, falling to the ground ... and more ... is something that these people just don't think about.

I have represented people who have been bitten by one dog, more than one dog, a dog they knew, one they were trying to rescue, a dog on a leash, a dog that the owner said was okay to pet, a dog the victim was trying to feed or groom ...

I have photographs that you would never, ever forget. A face that needed labels for the pieces because it was not recognizable as a face. Children who were scalped. Legs with huge chunks missing. The rule in my law office (I represent only dog bite victims) is that we do not look at new photos until the end of the day.

Were you attacked by a dog? Tell these people your story...

Instead of hearing important information about the patterns associated with violent dog attacks, so that they might be avoided, the public is often told that these events are like the strike of lightning, without rhyme or reason, something totally out of the blue that could never have been anticipated. That is actually rubbish.

An article published today in a Colorado newspaper states that the savage mauling of 74-year-old Judy McGruder was something "we have never seen," according to the local sheriff. In fact, the McGruder attack was almost by-the-book, exhibiting no less than four very common characteristics associated with these horrifying incidents. It is a great disservice to give the public the impression that there is no way to predict and thus avoid such attacks.

A man is killed by two pit bulls, and the owner of the dog gets ... a ticket? Sixty-year-old Huron Barbour was just months from his wedding day when he was mauled to death by two pit bulls on his way home from work last November. That's like Diane Whipple, whose death in San Francisco in 2001 resulted in murder charges against a dog owner.

But Louisville Metro Police decided only to issue a dangerous dog citation to Adrian Ferguson, the owner of the pit bulls. This is a Class A misdemeanor in Kentucky, not a murder charge. It's a ticket. (Read about the case at the Wave 3 TV site or the archived copy of the article.)

I receive about 50 E-mail messages per day from the public. About 10 per day are about attacks by one dog upon another. The injuries inflicted in these attacks can require hundreds and even thousands of dollars of veterinary treatment. In many circumstances, the owner of the attacking dog is legally liable for paying the vet bills. To learn more about that, see What To Do If Your Dog Is Injured Or Killed.

Attacks upon dogs represent a serious threat to humans. The reason is that people often are injured when one dog attacks another. About one-third of my dog bite cases involve human victims who were mauled when their dog was attacked. Similarly, a study conducted by a group of orthopedic surgeons concluded that the two most common biting scenarios involved a victim attempting to separate fighting animals or provide first aid to an injured or sick animal. To read their article, click here.

After a Presa Canario killed its owner in Florida, and then was shot dead by police, an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published today (August 24, 2006) questions whether officers are trigger-happy, and suggests that they need to be trained in "stepping back and reading the dog."

Are our law enforcement agencies really going to train cops to "step back and read dogs" that are racing toward them with fangs ready and murder on their minds? Does the public really want to preserve dogs' lives over the safety of our police?

I receive about 50 E-mails per day from the public, and many of them are about aggressive, vicious, potentially dangerous DOG OWNERS. Right, not dogs, but dog owners.

For example, today I heard about a "neighbor" who has a trained guard dog that grabs and kills other dogs through the fence, and that terrorizes children. I also heard about a "neighbor" who went to the pound, picked up a dog that was labeled "bad for kids under 12," and turned the dog loose on a little girl who was 13 -- and now has an infected leg from being attacked by this dog.

Dog owners like these need to wake up: they are bad for our communities, bad for other dog owners, and bad for dogs too. Every community needs dangerous dog laws that contain and control not only the dogs but their morally deficient owners too.