Zachary King Sr., 30, was charged with manslaughter in Hennepin County, Minnesota, because his pit bull, which he kept chained in his basement, killed his 7-year-old son, Zachary King. The dog bit the child on the throat with such force that his vertebra was severed -- if the dog then had pulled, the child's head would have come off.
Emphasizing why he needs to be punished for this killing, Mr. King put the blame on Michael Vick, the disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback who recently plead guilty to crimes involving dog fighting. "Just because Michael Vick and all this pit bull stuff going on ... they want to make a big issue over it. I don't know what's going on," he said. (See the story on the website of KARE-11.)
Mr. King has to be punished for ignoring the fact that his pit bull had already bitten this little boy, who had a scar on his lip -- had already bitten the man who installed a fence, resulting in a $22,000 settlement -- and was kept chained, which is known to make dogs aggressive toward people. (See Why Dogs Bite People on www.dogbitelaw.com.)
