A 15-month-old baby died this Monday in the Italian town of Eboli (Salerno, south) due to injuries caused by the attack of two pit bull dogs, which also injured his mother while trying to rescue him.
The little boy was in his uncle’s arms when, upon leaving his house, the dogs pounced on the child and snatched him from his hands, reported the Italian media, which highlighted that the mother also suffered injuries, although her life was not lost. is in danger.
More than a hundred paramedics were moved to the site of the attack, about 85 kilometers from Naples (south), as well as a team of Carabineros (militarized police), while the Salerno Prosecutor’s Office (south) has opened an investigation into the events. .
Italy’s main consumer association, Codacons, spoke out on the case, calling “loudly for measures to be adopted to guarantee the safety of citizens and limit the phenomenon of potentially dangerous dogs.”
“Beyond the specific case and the dynamics that caused the attack (…) there is no doubt that there are dog breeds that are potentially dangerous to humans,” he said in a statement.
Since 2009, Italy has not had an official list of potentially dangerous dogs and, since 2013, the last year in which legislation on the subject was approved, the owner has been held responsible both civilly and criminally for damages or injuries caused to third parties. as well as the education of the animal.
In Italy there are 70,000 dog attacks on people every year, according to Codacons, which maintains that “regardless of the education given to the animal, it is universally known that some breeds can cause lethal wounds in the event of a bite.”
In this sense, it requested a “mandatory license” to own potentially dangerous dogs, since “the bite of a Pomeranian does not cause the same wounds” as a pit bull, the organization settled.
