Members of the public should be able to walk their dogs in safety

We continue to hear of similar stories on a pretty regular basis. What will it take for authorities to respond to these attacks seriously? I dread to think if there was a child with Mr Dale as well. Why is the fact that he is a grown man any different that a child being bitten?

How disappointing to read that there may be no action against the dogs as it is a first occurrence. Let's hope Mr Dale and Poppy recover well and that the matter is dealt with in line with community expectations. Members of the public should be able to walk their dogs in safety.

Mr Dale, I am so sorry this happened to you. My dog was also attacked by a staffie.

What many owners of such and other big dogs do not seem to realise that as long as the dogs are with them they could be lovely, placid and well behaved dogs. Off the leash is a totally different matter. Their hunting instinct takes over and they become dangerous. I agree, that the owners should be very severely punished. A child could die of such an attack.

With the debate about racism in Australia still a hot topic, I'm wondering just how we can actually describe 'racism' and can we really justify the claim that Australia is a racist nation?

A great many Australians, because of their personal family heritage, have links stretching back over the years to other nations and cultures, whether they choose to acknowledge it or not.

So I can't see how, with Australians straddling such a wealth of genetic heritage, that we can be called a racist nation.

Physical appearances often camouflage the fact that an individual may belong to more than one cultural or national group but often, for some reason, they claim otherwise.

Is it because they feel shame toward their wider heritage or is it more advantageous, in some way, to relate to that specific culture or nation? Unless we are able to genuinely acknowledge our forebears, regardless of our genetic heritage, we may indeed be racist by failing to say who we really are and being selective about our personal gene pool.