I agree that it starts with the owner.

It was about the summer of 1993, I was 7 years old and my little brother Chip was 4 years old. Every day my brother and I would walk up the sidewalk with our dog Shelly, which was a Sheltie (smaller version of Lassie) to see Mr. Rose. Who was an old man that lived about a block away. Whenever the three of us would visit him, he would give Chip and I a cookie and a hot dog for Shelly. I was out of town one day over at my Aunt's house in Virginia leaving Chip with no one to go with. My mother told him to stay home, that Mr. Rose wasn't home today. However he giggled and continued to run out the back yard by himself. Carolyn my mother knowing that Chip would be only disappointed to find no one home, ran upstairs to find her shoes. Truth was that Mr. Rose was at the hospital that day sitting next to his wife "Mrs. Rose" who was dying from lung cancer. Carolyn was sitting on the edge of the bed tying her shoe laces when she heard the back screen door open, she went to the bathroom window to see Shelly running down the block after Chip.

As she ran downstairs out the same screen door and began her way to Chip. She heard my little brother screaming. Not sure what to think, she ran down the side walk and found him lying on the side walk crying covered in blood, pointing towards the back yard of the house in front of them. My mother having no clue what to think picked Chip up and ran him back to the house. Halfway down the side walk she could only focus on the fence to the backyard until she encountered what seemed to be a pit bull. My brother screamed and my mother froze, she describe the animal having scars all down it's back and the neck being bare from an old collar. Carolyn stood frozen and watched the dog run toward her and her son, in the corner of her eye she saw Shelly running at full speed from behind one of the houses towards the pit bull. Causing the animal to change course and attack her instead. My mother ran holding my brother towards the house, once inside she called 911 for help. My brother had been bleeding badly and she was sure that the pit bull would turn on someone else.

My father was home not long after and the cops were there just as quickly. With their guns drawn they went to find the pit bull. Behind the back yard by the creek they found the pit biting and tearing apart Shelly, who had been dead for some time now. The pit bull spotted the officers and once again began to charge after them as well. One of the officers fired a shot at the animal, but didn't seem to help. From what I understand from my father is that it took about three shots from the cops, for my father take over and shoot it down with his own shot gun. He wanted to take care of the animal from the beginning but law enforcement asked him to step down. When the pit bull finally passed he locked his jaw on a tree root in the ground. Animal control had to saw the root out of the ground to remove the animal. They had mentioned that this had to have been one of the worst cases they had seen in our area involving pit bulls.

I had to come home early from my aunt's house; I was taken to my grandmothers first. My grandmother sat me down and told me what happened. All I could do is cry; Shelly was my birthday present from my father. She was always with me, even when I went to bed at night. When I got home all I could see was blue and red lights and people from the news stations. Whenever I was asked anything, all I could do is cry. All I wanted to do is say goodbye to her and I couldn't. No one would let me near her. I loved her so much that I wanted to die with her. My father said something to me that I remember to this day, "I hope they understand what Shelly did from them when they are older, if it wasn't for her-it would have been my son."

Today do I blame everything on pit bulls? No. I blame about 75% of this on the owners. The owners only lived about 5 or 6 houses down. From what I understand is that the dog was chained down to a dog house. The owners were out of town and left the dog in the back yard. The dog for whatever reason broke the chain and found my little brother walking down the sidewalk and attacked, that is until Shelly came up the side walk from our house.

I do believe that these dogs are potentially dangerous and should only be kept by people that are qualified. That the animal control board should register these owners and do yearly inspections. Not every pit bull is like this, I strongly agree. But they do have the ability to become very dangerous.

Further information:
Article published based on attack,
http://www.petpublishing.com/dogken/breeds/sheltie.shtml