I just want to know why these people would allow something like this to happen. y didnt they take action to get this pitbull out right away or pick up the 16 month old. These are irrisponsible pitbull owners and they should really be in jail and be responsible for her death. This is very devistating...........

I agree with GameZone, this photo needs to be removed. It's shamefully irresponsible journalism to not make it clear that the dog memorialized on the back of the SUV is not the same one that killed this child.

Had a neighbor with a pit bull that refused to keep it in his yard. He was warned. One day the dog went for a walk and never came home. End of problem.

Study the bred and its history and you'll find that REPUTABLE breeding and ownership guidelines specify that individuals that show any aggression toward humans be destroyed and certainly not bred.

Licensure and training requirements are great ideas, but will never pass and if they do they'll probably be challenged and struck down. Let's face it, we can't rely on the government to solve all our problems and we certainly can't legislate our way to common sense.

What we can do is use existing laws to prosecute those neglegent enough to allow such things to happen.

If someone killed a child accidentially, they'd probably be charged criminally or sued or both. Those same laws can be used in cases such as this one without the need to create more laws.

My apology for any typos, I'm posting this from my iPhone.

The facts are that pit bulls bite rates are FAR BELOW most other breeds. But when they do bite, because of their strength and tenacity the results are often tragic, as in this case.

FYI, our mutt was an older rescue dog, who knows what he'd been through, and she tried to take a pig's ear from the weimeraner.

This is a horribly tragic incident, and I pray to God that no one else ever has to go through this pain. Yes, most dogs can be strong willed, and also not trained well. It takes tons of persistence and patience to properly train any dog. My daughter, by her 5th birthday, had been bitten by our small, mutt, family dog, and a German Shepard that she knew very well, both on her face. When she was seven, she was bitten, again on her face, by our one year old, very large, Wiemeraner. Maybe she should have been trained better. Either way, you have to be consistent with dogs and children. Yes, some dogs should not be with some people, and some people should not raise children. Some breeds have been bred though, over so many years to be not only loyal and protective, but also viscous. It's in there and you can't do anything about it. Any breed of dog that is proven to be overly viscous

should at least be registered, and the owner should go through training classes with the dog. I am sure that anyone willing to shell out $300.00 to $500.00 or more for a dog, can handle the cost of training.

E-mc2,

Obviously the ONLY thing that you have in common with Einstein is the use of that formula as your username.

Thanks for pointing out who the real idiot is by your post.

Did you even bother to read what all of what I wrote, or did you find the first comment that you didn't agree with and had an idiotic, knee jerk reaction causing you to post an ill-written, nonsensical post, in almost all CAPS.

Obviously the friend's "pet" that bit you was an excellent judge of character. I hope your friend gave him a treat after the incident. :)

Perhaps you should learn some netiquette (that's net etiquette, just FYI) and learn how to turn your CAPS LOCK off when posting. It also seems that a refresher on spelling, grammar and punctuation would be helpful for you as well.

Just FYI it's "friend's", not "friends" and "you're" not "your". If you're going to insult me, please use proper English.

The Dude

WTFDUDE Let me make this brief...YOU ARE AN IDIOT!!! I WAS BITTEN BY A FRIENDS "PET"ASK YOURSELF THIS WHEN YOUR SOBER:DO I REALLY LOVE MY CHILDREN MORE THAN A DOG.YOU PLAY WITH FIRE YOU WILL GET BURNED.

Yeah, I love seeing those "If it ain't Pit, it ain't shit" stickers on the windows of the mobile meth labs rolling down Highway 45.

You know, sometimes laws against public profanity should be enforced. TPD officers and LCS deputies can read.

I personally have seen the "BAM BAM memorial" driving around Tupelo and Shannon. If I am not mistaken, there is a bullet hole about two inches from where that picture ended.

Sorry for the lack of context on the photo of the pit bull memorial. The tragedy happened Thursday night and I took the photo Friday morning, and it was covered with dust, so I would guess that Bam Bam - the dog being memorialized - was not the killer.

This is a very sad situation and my condolences for their loss to all who knew and loved this little girl.

It seems that everything went wrong in this situation and the "adult humans" here and not the dog are to blame.

A pit bull was once a member of my family (for 10 years until he died) and quite honestly, he was without a doubt the best dog that I have ever had, before or since. He was smart, loyal and very protective of us while being very loving of everyone with whom my wife and I were friendly.

While we didn't have any children, our best friends had a toddler and he just loved her and she him. He would be laying in his bed asleep and she would waddle over and jump on him and he NEVER showed any hint of aggression toward her.

BUT, we would have never let him be around anyone but us, child or adult without our supervision. We trusted that we had brought him up properly and that he loved us, BUT, we would not take the chance of anyone ever accusing him of hurting them or their children, we loved him too much to take the chance that he'd ever be accused of hurting anyone and have to be put down. At the

time we had him we were living in Florida and were in one of these "let's everyone hate pit bulls" cycles and there was talk of legislation against the breed, etc. This seems to happen every time something tragic like this happens involving one of these dogs.

Before we got our dog, I spent months reading about the breed and looking for a REPUTABLE source for a good dog (I could trace his history/bloodlines back 16 generations.) So, I knew what I was getting into both with the dog and with the attitudes of those who really didn't understand that properly bred and trained, a pit bull, like the dog of pretty much any breed, can be a really great dog.

The bottom line is that the fault lies not with this breed of dog. Rather it lies with the humans.

Unfortunately, because these dogs are so strong and loyal, they are oftentimes owned by people who should not have them.



Here are a few categories that immediately come to mind (I'm sure there are others):

1) Dog fighters and breeders associated with the despicable activity of dog fighting

2) Drug dealers

3) Rednecks and other idiots who think that it's cool to have a "badass dog". (Perhaps they think that it makes them appear a badass to have one of these dogs.)

4) Otherwise good people with weak personalities and/or no experience in handling such a strong willed dog.

5) Anyone without the time to spend interacting with and training their dog and who instead chains it, regardless of breed, for long periods of time. (It's cruel and quite often leads to behavior problems. That's true of almost any mammal, dog, human, etc.

We're not built to be chained and ignored and it shouldn't happen, ever.)

So, rather than getting all bent out of shape and irrationally calling for legislation to "outlaw these dogs", etc., how about we be more responsible humans?

How about we ask our law enforcement to focus not on the type of dogs that someone has, but rather the type of people who have these types of dogs?

How about rather than giving lip service to wiping out dog fighting, everyone, law enforcement and civilians, work toward eliminating dog fighting and the inhumane "industry" around it?

I'm not going to address the drug dealers, because that's a whole other discussion related to the bogus "war on drugs" that actually encourages the ownership of vicious dogs to protect the dealers' "illegal activities."

How about we stop acting like it's so cool to have vicious dogs and thus stop encouraging rednecks and other idiots to have them for the "coolness factor"?

How about those thinking of getting a pit bull for their first dog, or those without the appropriate personality and time to properly train them, NOT GET THEM?!!!

How about we stop thinking of dogs as "just a dog", an attitude that is far too prevalent here, and recognize that they are also beings with souls and feelings and treat them appropriately and prosecute those who mistreat them?

How about we aggressively prosecute anyone who has a "vicious dog", regardless of breed, or any other animal for that matter, that does harm to anyone else?

How about we adequately supervise our dogs when they are interacting with ANYONE, adult or child, again, regardless of the breed of our dog?

How about we not leave our children with people or in places that have large and/or vicious dogs? If your babysitter has such a dog, why not have them babysit at your house not theirs?

In other words, why don't we use some common sense?

I know that common sense seems very uncommon these days, so maybe that's just too much to ask.

This is such a tragedy. The owners should be ashamed of themselves for "taking up" for the vicious dog. Maybe the owners should be mauled, and then see how they feel about it.

Just to clarify it isn't clear that the dog mentioned in the memorial was involved in this incident.

Why do people favor these dogs? An animal that will mutilate a 1 yr old girl is not Man's Best Friend. What useful purpose do these dogs serve in our society? A child has been lost because someone 'likes' this kind of dog.

"You Can't Fix Stupid" - Ron White.

No Bam Bam you are guilty of killing a 16 month old child. Well maybe if the owner wasn't an idiot this would've never happened.