Editor’s note: Once again, the key component in cases like these is not the breed of dog — especially since “pit bull” is not a breed and since there is no such thing as an inherently vicious breed of dog — but the fact that the dog was repeatedly free-roaming.   It sounds like Springdale needs more Animal Control enforcement to police free-roaming dogs and to cite their irresponsible owners.

Please contact the Springdale Mayor and City Council and politely inform them that breed-specific legislation in any form is ineffective, unenforceable, and unconstitutional.

From NWAhomepage.com:

Sheila Elkins says Saturday’s pit bull attack in her neighborhood was unfortunate but not unexpected.

“We’ve seen it chasing children, we’ve seen it in our backyards to where we couldn’t come out of our homes and called animal control to come take care of the problems,” Sheila said.

Police say the dog attacked Kathryn Urban and her two sons as they played in their front yard. Officers shot and killed the dog because, according to their report, it lunged at one of them.

Springdale Alderman, Mike Overton says he’d like to see pit bulls banned inside city limits.

“An attack like this one is just a good illustration of the fact that there is a real problem with certain breeds of dogs. I understand it might not necessarily be the animal’s fault. You can always say it’s the owner, but the fact is there are some breeds that are just vicious,” Overton said.

Overton, a dog owner himself, initiated a pit bull ban discussion last year and says he plans on bringing it back up at next weeks ordinance committee meeting.

…Although the attack shook her up, Sheila says she’s not sure she’d support a dog breed ban.

“I don’t think that’s quite fair, but there again we do have a responsibility to take care of our children,” she said.