FLORIDA -- In an odd way, Trinity Ciolfi should count herself as lucky.
Odd because the 11-year-old Titusville girl suffered painful bites and bone fractures to both arms just a few days after Christmas.
Lucky because she wasn't killed like Emako Mendoza, a California woman who died on Christmas Eve because of complications from an attack by two pit bulls that required amputating her left arm and leg.
Trinity didn't provoke the dog. She was just getting on her bike to go home after visiting a friend when the dog broke free from a tether and attacked.
How tragic, and how familiar. The advocacy group dogsbite.org reports that 21 people of all ages were killed in 2011 by pit bulls, accounting for seven of every 10 U.S. dog bite fatalities. Among the dead was 74-year-old Roy McSweeney of Putnam County, who was working in his yard earlier this year when two pit bulls tore off one of his arms.
Despite the horror stories involving little girls or old men, Florida continues to ban local governments from imposing breed-specific dog ordinances, like requiring special enclosures or muzzles for breeds known to shred humans.
Before McSweeney died, we asked state legislators to tell him why the state won't give local jurisdictions the freedom to protect residents from dangerous breeds.
Now a little girl who wanted to be a veterinarian has been waking up at night screaming. Will someone tell her why pit bulls should be treated like Chihuahuas?
(Orlando Sentinel - January 04, 2012)
