Hello; I think your comment may be one of the keys to the issue in question. Some people see their dogs as "family members" with all the emotional attachments that implies. Others of us care about a dog but not to the level of a brother, sister, parent or child. In fact, many of us place any dog at a much lower level than any human being even outside the family. Once you equate a dog with family the view on these maulings seems to take a different tone. I suspect some transference with regard as to how you would feel if your "family member dog" had bitten a child and was to be put down. I will speculate this is why you contend the dog in question should not be put down even after a bad mauling of a child. I can not come to embrace the empathy for a dog over that for a child.
I have had dogs that I cared about and was lucky in that none ever attacked a person. Had that happened, I like to think I would have put the dog down. Once a dog attacks a person, that is a line crossed. I can carve out a few specific exceptions. For example a dangerious intruder into a home attacked by a dog protecting a family member, not a visitor or child picking up a bone. A police or military dog that attacks under the supervision of it's trainer. There might possibly be other very specific cases, but not many of the reported mauling, including the one under discussion, fall into such a category. Dogs are not people and under law do not have the rights of people.
To the issue of pitbulls and rotweillers being somehow targeted and falsley demonized, consider this. Many of us have based our concerns not just on the media reports but on the numbers. As I read thru the studies in links I previously provided; these two breeds appear to make up five percent or less of the total dog population but account for over seventy percent (70%) of fatal maulings. If I recall correctly, over fifty percent (50+%) for pitbulls alone. There must be something to those numbers. Those of us who have to share the world with these dogs are, in my opinion, duly concerned. It is not likely to be only bad owners as it seems there should be similar numbers of bad owners of the other breeds.
