Police dog trainer's daughter mauled to death by family dog

By David Rogers

The one-year-old daughter of a police dog trainer was mauled to death by her family�s dog in Lower Austria this morning (Fri).

Police said the animal had turned on the girl at 9am in Waldviertel.

Doctors at Horn provincial clinic, where she was taken after the attack, said she had died despite all efforts to save her.

It is unclear whether the dog was a police dog. It has not been reported whether the animal was put down following the attack.

The tragedy will intensify debate in Lower Austria about a new draft law on dog ownership due for review by the provincial parliament on 19 November.

Provincial politicians have been trying to pass new legislation since three pit bulls attacked a toddler and tore her ear off in early September in Rohrbach an der G�lsen in Lower Austria�s Lilienfeld district.

The Social Democrats (SP�) called today for revision of the draft law proposed by the People�s Party (�VP) after provincial SP� whip Helmut Cerwenka claimed it would not stop dogs from attacking people and was only a response to the pit bulls� attack.

But critics of the law, including the Austrian Kennel Club (�KV), say it would ban people from owning breeds of dogs considered especially dangerous and that around 85 per cent of the 750,000 dogs in Austria were mongrels and hence unclassifiable as belonging to a specific breed.

Dog magazine Wuff, which has also attacked the legislation, said the dogs classified as especially dangerous in the draft legislation accounted for a very small percentage of those which have bitten people in Austria.

�VP provincial whip Klaus Scheeberger, who presented the draft legislation on Tuesday, claimed the dogs considered dangerous were those of breeds that had frequently attacked people and those trained to be aggressive. He said most Lower Austrian dog owners would not be affected by the new law.

The draft law excludes dogs considered to be in the public interest, such as police, rescue and guide dogs.

Austrian Times

Write your comment to this article here

griffin wrote on 18. 11. 2009 from wisconsin

its not that the breed of dogs are viscious and mean, its just that its how they were trained or treated

Reply
Roffey wrote on 13. 11. 2009 from Wien

Why do some people prefer to own an aggressive breed of dog instead of a family pet ? Some of these owners seem to use a dog as an extension of their own ego to impress or intimidate. Strong new laws are required otherwise more injuries and deaths will occur. An effective law should be simple - 1 All pit bull terriors, doberman, rottweiler and other dogs certified by a vet as having similar characteristics should be destroyed. The owners of illegal dogs would be liable to a fine of up to Â�10.000. 2 The owner of any dog listed above that attacks a human will be fined a maximum of Â�20.000 and / or be imprisoned for up to 2 years.

Reply
- bill wrote on 14. 11. 2009 from austria
  
  we own a beautiful Rottweiler, our second one. We look after him and make sure that he is no danger to anyone. The comments and suggestions by Roffey are typical of the fools who know nothing about dogs.
  
  Reply

Tag cloud:
legislation attacked considered Kennel Club owning dogs death belonging mauled Austria specific trainer Police bulls family breeds unclassifiable animal police

Latest News

Strache calls for drug addicts' centres in suburbs
New ideas on the Viennese drug scene problem by Freedom Party (FP�) boss Heinz-Christian Strache is set to cause controversy.

Direktanlage.at looks back on year of growth
Austrian discount broker Direktanlage.at said it managed to grow on all areas "despite the crisis".

Crash diets can lead to crashed cars, says doc
Crash diets could lead to car crashes, car club �AMTC doctor Heimo Vedernjak warned today (Weds).

Lauda to promote Romania 'to make destination profitable'
FlyNiki CEO Niki Lauda revealed plans to promote Romania in Austria.

Thousands of fags found in Austrian car
Beady-eyed customs officers found more than 1,100 cigarette boxes hidden in an Austrian-registered Mercedes trying to cross the Croat-Serb border.

Vienna overnights sharply up year on year
The Viennese tourism industry continues to boom as overnight figures stay up year on year.

Donna Leon to read at Haydn Days
Bestseller author Donna Leon will take part in this year�s Haydn Days festival, organisers announced today (Weds).

The most popular stories –
last 7 days

	Giant eye tumour horror
	Nazi era mass grave discovered in Graz
	Vienna Boys Choir faces sexual abuse claims
	Vienna to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with cultural festival
	Real life World War II fairytale to hit the silver screen

Police dog trainer's daughter mauled to death by family dog

Related articles: police scandals

Tag cloud: legislation attacked considered Kennel Club owning dogs death belonging mauled Austria specific trainer Police bulls family breeds unclassifiable animal police

Tag cloud:
legislation attacked considered Kennel Club owning dogs death belonging mauled Austria specific trainer Police bulls family breeds unclassifiable animal police