Dog attack spurs calls for pit bull ban

Ontario is already pursuing legislation to ban the breed and now a Vernon couple is asking the B.C. government to follow suit after their small dog was attacked and killed yesterday in the rural neighbourhood of Lavington.

Margaret Houston was taking her little dog Max on a routine walk when it happened. "Out of nowhere the pitbull came right at us," she explained. "I don't know why he didn't go for me. He just went right for my dog."

Houston tried to lift her dog away from the attacking animal. But the schnauzer fell from her arms just as another large dog ran towards her.

"The rottweiler that lives next door joined in the attack, and they just shook him like a rag doll," she said. The rottweiler was quickly brought under control.

Houston tried again to rescue her pet, but Max was pulled from her arms. She says the pit bull continued to tear her dog apart until he was fatally wounded.

Houston thinks the attack could just as easily have killed a child and says the B.C. government has to act.

"As much as I hate to say it, I think we should go the same route as Ontario, and ban them completely."

The pit bull in this case was been seized by the SPCA and put down.

Houston and her husband Charles plan to meet with government officials this week and demand stronger laws to control dangerous dogs.

But Solicitor General Rich Coleman has flatly rejected any new legislation banning pit bulls in B.C., saying such a law would be clumsy and ineffective.