On Staten Island, New York, a total of 8 calls were placed to 911 about the pit bulls that attacked 90-year-old Henry Piortrowski in his back yard. Piotrowski died from his horrific injuries. (Click here to read the article.)

Every day, I hear about a dog attack that the authorities could have prevented if they had taken action. Jennifer Lowe was killed by pit bulls in Knoxville, Tennessee almost one year ago; the local animal control not only declared the dogs dangerous weeks before, but caught the dog owner playing with the unleashed dogs on his unfenced property -- and yet, they did nothing until Jennifer's death.

Official neglect is one of the reasons why there is a dog bite epidemic in the USA. Until someone hits them in their wallet, our city and county governments are going to continue ignoring this serious problem.

Diane Cockrell of Livingston County, Michigan, has pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from two fatal dog maulings in 2007. Cheryl "Cheri" Harper, 56, and Edward Gierlach, 91, were mauled by four of Cockrell's dogs on September 13, 2007. The dogs were running at large.

The plea agreement calls for Cockrell to serve 43 months to 15 years in prison. She will be sentenced on September 18, 2008. (Click here to read the article.)

In 2001, two Presa Canario dogs killed San Francisco resident Diane Whipple. The dogs belonged to Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller. They were convicted of an assortment of felonies in 2002, and the dogs were euthanized. Knoller (not Noel) was charged with second degree murder. The jury voted guilty.

The state and the defendants moved for a new trial. Knoller's motion was granted. The prosecution filed an appeal. The California Supreme Court had to rewrite the law of second degree murder to side with the prosecution. Based on the new definition of second degree murder, the trial court denied Knoller's motion yesterday, August 21, 2008. (Click here for the article.) She is scheduled to be sentenced on September 22, 2008. She faces a prison term of 15 years to life.

People v. Knoller and Noel is an example of justice prevailing over law. Knoller's decision to expose other people to her very ill, cattle-herding dog was nothing less than a choice to expose other people to serious bodily injury or death. Knoller had no right to act on that decision. As a result, the horrific mauling of Diane Whipple was murder by recklessness, called "second degree murder" in California.

While the dog bite lawyer inside me is satisfied, the lawyer is troubled. There is no question that the California Supreme Court had to expand the law of second degree murder in order to achieve Knoller's conviction. (See The Diane Whipple Case.) The court held that a defendant can be convicted of second degree murder if he has "awareness of engaging in conduct that endangers the life of another." This was legal but not pretty.

I am not sure that any dog owner in this society is conscious of the risks posed by his dog, or that society as a whole wants dog owners to bear the burden of those risks. We regard our dogs as family members with minds of their own; we resist the thought that they are killers in our midst, and accept the fact that they make many decisions we disapprove of. Dogs will be dogs.

Look at the civil law aspects of dog attacks. When last counted 12 years ago, there were 4.7 million dog bites in the USA every year. Unquestionably that number has risen. Nevertheless, the insurance industry makes payments to less than 25,000 dog bite victims annually in this country. (For details on the statistics in this paragraph, see Dog Bite Statistics.)

Now look at the criminal law aspects of dog attacks. There have been scores of fatal dog maulings since 2001, but criminal prosecution of dog owners on any charges are extremely rare. After all, there are 70 million dogs and "only" 30 deaths per year, so who would seriously think that walking a dog will expose neighbors to the risk of death? A jury has to end up believing that the defendant thought about something which was less likely than getting hit by lightening. As a result, we have a minuscule number of civil or criminal charges. It hardly seems to me like this society believes that dog owners should be held responsible for the most outrageous acts of our dogs.

Knoller's dog was put to death in the street outside the building where Whipple was killed. I have no problem whatsoever with that. But Knoller and the owners of 70 million dogs in the USA are now exposed to murder charges for deeds of their dogs, despite the generally lax attitude of society toward dog attacks. This is a contradiction that needs resolution.

I would like clear laws that tell dog owners what they will be held accountable for. And then I want those laws enforced. I hope the Diane Whipple murder trial will be an isolated example of justice prevailing over law.

Henry Piotrowski, 90 years old, of Staten Island, New York, was mauled by two pit bulls on July 1, 2008, and died on August 17, 2008. The dogs attacked him in his own garden. One of his legs had to be amputated, and he had been in the hospital since the attack. (Click here to read the article.)

New York's dog bite statute provides strict liability only for medical bills. For compensation other than medical bills, New York is a one bite state.

Six-year-old Isis Krieger of Anchorage, Alaska, was mauled by her parents' pit bull on August 12, 2008. The girl and her 2-year-old sister were playing with the dog when it attacked. It bit her neck, breaking it and ultimately leaving her brain dead. She passed away on August 18, 2008, after life support was terminated. (Click here to read the article.)

Alaska is a one bite state. The authorities have been calling this an "accident" and announced there would be no prosecutions even before the girl died. The one bite rule was formulated for English villagers in the 1700s. There were no pit bulls in those days. Maybe it's time for a change.

The year 2007 was a good one for 41-year-old Cynthia Peters and 43-year-old Mark Parr of Richmond, California. After the local police accidentally shot their pit bull in July 2005, the couple received a portion of the $225,000 settlement.

They used some of their money to buy two new pit bulls. Early this year, their dogs attacked a utility worker. The animal control department confiscated the animals and planned to euthanize them on on July 9th. The night before, however, "someone" broke into the dog pound and took the dogs. When police went to the couple's house the next day, they had moved out.

The same day, security cameras caught the images of Peters and Parr robbing a woman. Detectives tracked them to a hotel in Sacramento, California. As the cops closed in, the two pit bulls charged into a hallway and grabbed a hotel worker. They would not stop mauling them, at which point history repeated itself: the police opened fire on the dogs, killing both of them. (Click here to read the article.)

Will this dynamic duo of doglovers win their next case against the cops? I seriously doubt it. Not this time.