Questions Linger After Pit Bull Attack

20 a year, population 300 million, so you can expect to be fatally attacked by a dog once every 15 million years, roughly in hit-by-asteroid territory, riskwise. On the other side, the other 100 million dogs lengthen and enrich their owners' lives immeasurably. So the natural result is hysterics and busybodies seizing on every news story about lingering questions to scare women, their audience.

"It's almost routine now," said Karen Delise, a veterinarian who studied hundreds of such cases for her book, "Fatal Dog Attacks: The Stories Behind the Statistics," which found that the number of fatal dog attacks nationwide has held steady at an average of 20 a year.