Owner of devil dog which savaged 10-year-old Scots girl pleads for pet's life

I saw this story in todays edition of the Sunday Mail (I work in a newsagents, I didn't buy the paper) and it made me think about something. Let's get some background out of the way first though. A Japanese Fighting dog has mauled a 10 year old schoolgirl, taking a chunk out of her cheek and scarring her for life. By the sounds of it the owner knew what to do and sounds responsible enough that this is somehow a freak accident but let's disregard that for now. Obviously there is public outrage as there always is when a child is mauled by a dog and they are calling for the dog to be put down. The owner doesn't want this to happen obviously and her calls for her dog to live made me consider something.

Here in Britain there is no Death Penalty for humans. We do not believe in killing those who kill others as a suitable punishment and have chosen to rehabilitate criminals instead. If a human had caused this attack there would be no question of them dying or not as they would get an assault/attempted murder sentence and be jailed for a long time. A dog is, by our definitions of an animal, less responsible for its actions than a human. Why should a dog be killed for an attempted murder where a human would still live? Surely the more responsible you are for your actions, the bigger the crime?

Edit: I read through some of the comments and am surprised about how adamant many of the commenters are that the dog should be killed. I'd have serious doubts over killing any living creature myself. I'm not a vegetarian or anything as I accept it as part of the food chain but I dislike the idea of having to kill anyone or anything unless absoultely necessary.

 

I think the dog should be killed.
I support the death penalty as it's both a punishment AND a deterrent. The justice system in Britain is completely screwed up.

 

This. I mean, we live in a country where someone who killed 250+ innocent people was let out because he had "3 months to live". That was over a year ago. Although an easier fix to dog attacks like this would be to just not allow people to keep these breeds of dog. As in jail sentences for people found keeping one.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the dog should be kept alive
Yes the dog was vicious, but blah, read Nadrian's post.

 

Why kill it to send a message to the other dogs, obviously not, so the one who should be punished is the owner who let the dog become the way that is while to dog is sent to some kind of rehabilitation for dogs.

 

Wait, send a message to OTHER dogs? What do you mean by that?

 

Yeah, that's what I tried to imply with the text that you didn't quote: it's impossible to stop accidents from happening, so this just shouldn't be allowed whatsoever.

 

No Dogs are kept as pets because the can be taught to behave properly, for example dogs that are only trained to fight illegally have been changed to the point they can be pets.

 

The owner is willing to move to an isolated area to ensure it never happens again, and said she's willing to comply with giving up the dog if the professional deems the dog completely unsafe. She reacted quickly to the situation, and has been open about what happened with the victim's family as well as everyone else. As long as she follows through and actually moves, I think the dog should be allowed to live as long as the professional doesn't deem it completely unsafe and the owner agrees to some sort of behavioral training for the dog.