Lack of Responsible Dog Ownership Contributes to Bite

A 10 year old boy was bitten by a loose Pitbull in Sumter, SC.

Two 3-year-old pit bulls a male and a female apparently got out of a fenced-in pen and came through a backyard path from a North Milton Street home.
The female was seized by the Sumter Police Department's Animal Control Unit and is being quarantined for 30 days.

I hate to read about kids getting bitten. It can be a physically and psychologically traumatic incident that plagues the kid for years. Whenever possible, I like to look at the details of the attack to see what can be learned. In this case, I didn't learn anything new, but rather got sucked into a WTF vortex:

“The dog was in the sewage behind the house, and then we (he and Wise) were standing in the yard talking about why the dog was in the sewage, and the dogs came running after us but mainly me,” Tobias [the victim] recounted[.]

Dog in sewage. m'kaaaaaaay.

The white pit bull later identified as the male, called “Big,” by his owner, Anthony Hayes tried to get at his neck, Tobias said, and that's when he was knocked over and the female pit bull, “Beauty,” bit his leg and didn't let go.

The dog's name is "Big". Is that really a NAME or does the guy have a Brittany named "Medium", a Pomeranian called "Small" and a Great Dane known fondly as "Extra Large"? Something is not right here.

Hayes, 30, said the dog is pregnant, which might be a reason it attacked. Both dogs were kept in the house until recently, when they got to be too large to stay inside. Hayes said either one or both of the dogs dug a hole to escape their fenced-in enclosure, which is partially covered with blue tarps to keep out bad weather.
“Once she has the puppies, I'm probably going to get rid of her. I don't need the drama or anything else happening,” Hayes said.

Item: Puppies reach their adult size long before they are 3 years old - years before. So what is this nonsense about they just recently got too large to live indoors anymore? Did the house shrink?

Item: Dogs dig. Is this new information to any dog owners out there? If you leave dogs in a pen for any length of time, they're going to dig. Especially if they are bored.

Item: Unspayed females get pregnant if they are made to live in pens with unneutered males. But since the cow is out the barn now, what exactly is the plan for raising and finding good homes for the dam and pups? Is there a plan? Was there ever? Whelping the litter in an outside pen with a male dog isn't the plan, right?

Oh Calgon, take me away!

We need education and community outreach to promote responsible dog ownership, especially in poor, rural areas. Time and again we hear about kids getting bitten or being killed in preventable situations that never should have developed. I know some people choose to ignore personal responsibility and 'you can lead a horse to water' and all that. But if we at least got the horse to the water, it might spare a tragedy.