Dachshunds have taken at least two children’s lives since the CDC started collecting numbers. No breed is safe from irresponsible ownership or parenting for that matter.
Notice that many of these stories involve dogs that are either running loose or chained up. When the owners say the dogs are family pets, (who would admit they neglected the dog or knew something was wrong with it?)I like to check with animal control, because often there is already a record of the dogs either running loose or being neglected in some way. Sometimes, there are even previous bites reported, yet the owners kept the dogs and changed nothing.
The vast majority of these attacks could be prevented just by using a little common sense and being responsible, not by banning a breed. Places that have banned pit bulls have shown no decrease in serious attacks because the real problem was never the breed, but the owners. Both Denver, Colorado and the UK are in this boat together. In fact, the UK has had a big increase in their attack numbers. Places that create and enforce laws that target the owners (Calgary is an excellent example of this) have seen decreases in their serious attacks.
Please consider these facts, and if you like I can provide you with sources to read. It’s a shame that so many people are taking the minority as a representation of the entire breed, but hopefully if enough people can see that places have successfully managed the situation without banning breeds, more cities will adopt similar practices.
I don’t doubt that responsible pet ownership would make a significant dent in any kind of attacks. Animals are animals and need to be trained and monitored.
I wish they’d go after the owners more, by all means, but in cases like this, it’s too late for the animals. I don’t think that any animal which has reached this stage of aggressiveness can ever really be rehabilitated, or more importantly, trusted, again. These kind are the ones that absolutely need to be destroyed.