AUSTRALIA -- Ever since his daughters were savaged by a Rottweiler, Bill May has kept a baseball bat in his car.
He wants to be ready in case he ever sees someone else being attacked by a dog because he wasn't there to protect his girls when they were hurt.
It's been more than 11 years since Natasha and Danielle May, then just 9 and 7, and their mother, Caren, were horrifically mauled while playing in Bonython Park.
Both girls suffered severe injuries to their faces and upper bodies and spent a week in hospital.
Mr May, of Tranmere, still carries the bat and his girls, the scars.
"It's a horrible thing but after that, well, I carry a baseball bat in my car," he said. "I'm scared, not for me, but if I'm around and see a dog attacking someone, it's something that came into my mind, I want to be able to protect people."
Mr May's comments come almost three weeks after Ayen Chol, 4, was mauled to death by a pit bull dog in the family's Melbourne home.
While new legislation in Victoria means pit bulls and pit bull-crosses will be able to be seized by animal welfare officers armed with guidelines to identify the dogs, meaning owners will no longer be able to protect their pets by saying they are not purebreds, there are no plans to do the same in SA.
Two Sydney councils have also declared a month's amnesty for people to hand in restricted breeds as a result of the death.
When Natasha May, now 21, closes her eyes, she can still see the dog above her, biting her. "My mum was shielding me but it ran around her and grabbed my face and pulled me to the ground," she said.
"I remember looking up at it while it was attacking me, seeing a patch of brown on its stomach. I didn't think I'd have my eyes open while a dog was biting my face."
When younger sister Danielle ran to Natasha's aid, the dog turned on her. She received serious head wounds.
"After it happened, the girls would run from the car to the house, terrified," Mr May said.
"They wouldn't go anywhere. In parks, in shopping centres, they were always scanning for dogs and if there were any you may as well go home. It lasted for years and years."
The 2000 attack occurred just six weeks after the girls' mother, Caren, completed two months of chemotherapy for cancer but that didn't stop her collecting more than 8000 signatures on a petition demanding uniform state laws forcing owners to keep dogs leashed in public areas, except in designated zones, and to have dangerous breeds muzzled.
She died in 2003 without laws ever changing. "I feel disappointed with the Government," Mr May said. "Caren did a great campaign and got lots of signatures but rules seem to lapse, dogs on leads, that sort of thing. People still let their dogs out or are not controlling them.
"People don't think their dog will do it. Every time someone gets attacked the owner says the dog has never done anything like that before.
"There needs to be a statewide or federal law. Local councils do their best but you can't have separate laws; it's got to be one law for everyone right across the board."
Environment and Conservation Minister Paul Caica said he had sought advice from the SA Dog and Cat Management Board on whether additional measures were needed for particular dog breeds.
Currently, five breeds are described as dangerous under the Dog and Cat Management Act, including the American pit bull terrier, Dogo Argentino, Presa canario, Fila Brasiliero, and Japanese Tosa.
(Adelaide Now - September 3, 2011)
