Dog attacks: What needs to change?

I wish my cat LOUIE attack anyone that stole him or killed him, Louie was missing since 30-01-2012.. Louie was born 9th December 2010' he is a male brown long haired huge tappy cat with black cute feet, he was registered with the Waihi Veterinary Services, he had a good clean home with amples to eat with love and tender care and toiletry trained and well mannered.. I have six cats and a female dog name Lucy all were trained the same way.. Two to three weeks ago they didn't touch their food then I clicked' that someone else is feeding the animals without my permmision..
Whoever took him is a nutcase or an idiot and who else could afford to feed six cats per day around here..
Thank you for acknowledge the above mentioned and I miss my LOUIE very much..

How about tv ads with the message that "kids and dogs should not be left alone together" No matter what breed of dog, having a toddler wander up to them on their property is likely to be seen as threatening. I'm sure if these kids had been adequately supervised then alot of these dog attacks wouldn't have happened.

What about people who do terrible things and only get a slap on the wrist while anilmals get a much worse punishment?

Legislation won't work. it never has before. The problem is that many responsible owners will be targeted because they have obeyed the law - what about the dog owners that do not register etc. I have seen many bull terriers, staffy's, mastiffs, rotties that are lovely dogs. I have also seen many of the same breeds that I am absolutely terrified of. The same with toy breeds as well. Cesar Milan says exercise, discipline then affection. Most irresponsible dog owners don't do any of these things and then wonder why there is a problem. I live out of town so when I need to take my dog into town for grooming etc I leave him at a friends house while I do other things. I used to just tie him to the clothesline if they weren't home. Now I have to arrange for a time when they are home as their neighbours have bull terrier/mastiff type dogs that roam (and are also breeding). One of these dogs has bitten someone (an adult - unprovoked), but when the council turned up the dogs had been removed. A short time later the dogs were back on the property. Nothing has changed. These are the owners that should be targeted. In a way I view this as animal abuse. The dogs are not given the training they need from humans and are then punished for it. Maybe we need to look at a different system altogether.

What needs to be done is for people to break the seemingly endless cycle of talking without the walking. This notion of owner accountability holds little merit as these dogs have been known to attack even when brought up in a stable, responsible environment and with little or no provocation. These dogs do need to be banned.

The only sustainable solution is to licence the owner and hold them accountable. If the dog was to attack a person, the owner should be charge for assault with a deadly weapon etc. This would immediately force owners of dangerous or aggressive dogs to take the ownership of such an animal seriously.

A lot of dog owners don't know much about dog behaviors and exercise their dogs way less than they require. A irresponsible dog owner + a powerful breed of dog = disaster waiting to happen.

I agree with Jason. its not the dog- its the owner. I have a pure breed Rottweiler. This breed doesn't exactly have a great reputation but our dog is loving and playful and would only lick you to death. I would be heartbroken if we had to part with him if the law changes just because some people just don't or won't train their dogs properly.
Maybe they should make some sort of professional training compulsory it would be good for both dogs and their owners.

I am sick and tired of these ignorant people giving breeds like Staffodshire bull terriers a bad name. People who have no idea about dogs go and get a cheap xbreed dog for there family and have no knowledge of how to deal with a dog or how to socialise it. If you google Staffodshire Bull Terrier you will see that they look nothing like these Xbreed dogs that they are showing on the TV and that they are beautiful, loyal animals. Somthing needs to be changed soon with dog laws so we can ban stupid, uneducated people from owning dogs.

Easy - keep stupid people (and kids who are not educated on dog behaviour - children do not realize that common human behaviour such as staring in the eyes of a dog or hugging is seen as aggression to a dog) away from dogs. Problem solved. Also there is another aspect of wanting a dog to protect a place that is fenced in (a business or property) -- if there as signs and fencing, and someone breaking in gets bit by a dog, are you going to blame the dog for doing his job of protecting the place? Criminals have too many rights in this country, and alot of elderly have dogs for companionship and protection. There is no easy answer, but I find that people with kids think somehow that it is OK to approach a strange dog and pet it without asking the owner -- wrong, wrong. Children need to be educated NOT to approach a strange dog, which is half the battle here. Not everyone thinks your kids are cute either. Yes, be able to control the dogs - but parents should also control their kids.