Read On: Maybe we need common-sense dog laws

Last Saturday, my beloved dog, Travis, a 12-year-old beagle/Jack Russell terrier/cavalier spaniel mix of a mutt, was minding his own business at a park in Valley Glen, smelling the grass and enjoying the afternoon sunshine when he was suddenly and viciously attacked by another dog.

I wasn’t there. My 20-year-old son was. He reported that the attacking dog, which happened to be a pit bull, raced out of nowhere, making a beeline for a dog approximately a third its size that wasn’t threatening it in any way. The event was unprovoked, sudden and random.

The pit immediately clamped its powerful jaws tightly around the neck of my dog and began to violently shake him in that way dogs do when they’re trying to take down prey. Travis was blindsided, unable to defend himself.

My son bravely (if not necessarily, wisely) leaped into the fray. According to my kid, the owners of the pit did their best to pull their dog off of mine, grabbing the leash still attached to their animal but from which they had obviously relinquished control.

The whole thing lasted about 20 seconds. When it was over, my dog had twin puncture wounds in his neck along with numerous rips to his face and jowls. He lost a significant amount of blood.

As my son was trying to gather his wits, the pit bull’s owners cowardly scurried off before they could be questioned and held accountable. They were described as Caucasian, in their 30s, and driving a banged-up, white Chevy van with out-of-state plates.

My dog’s a tough little guy, and is expected to make a full physical recovery. The psychological wounds will take longer to heal. But we’re extraordinarily grateful to the veterinarians at the animal hospital for saving Travis’ life.

The last thing I’m looking to do here is demonize an entire breed. But as I quickly discovered after weighing in about the incident on Facebook, there’s a lot of passionate and decidedly mixed opinion about the American Staffordshire terrier, or pit bull.

There appear to be at least as many defenders asdetractors. And if you dare bad-mouth them, expect an earful from those who assert that pits are the sweetest, most gentle and loving animals on earth, and certainly no more dangerous than your average poodle.

Negligent owners are the problem. This is what I heard in the wake of the attack on my dog last weekend. Pit bulls are wonderful pets, kind to children, loyal, caring, worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. But irresponsible owners purportedly train them to attack, or at least don’t train them not to.

I don’t want to get into a war of statistics here. Yet it’s difficult to deny that pit bulls are cited in a wildly disproportionate number of serious biting and mauling incidents of both people and fellow canines.

What to do about it? Well, in most areas of Australia and New Zealand, pit bulls, mixes and other breeds deemed to be dangerous must be chipped, sterilized, restricted to a short leash and muzzled in public. Maybe we could try that here too.

How can we penalize good owners for the sins of the bad? For the same reason we need tighter controls on firearms.

Most pits are no doubt placid and loving family dogs, just as most guns are not fired with antagonistic and reckless intent. But innocent citizens — and pets — must be afforded the greatest possible protection in a civilized society.

And in the case of pit bulls, that means generating more-effective safeguards against assault from the muscular chops of an occasionally violent animal.

I know that I’m going to get blowback on this one. Before you lay into me, though, consider that my once-carefree and joyous dog is now terrified to leave the house. How fair is that?

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RAY RICHMOND has covered Hollywood and the entertainment business since 1984. He can be reached via email at ray@rayrichco.com and Twitter at @MeGoodWriter.