Earlier today, SFist told you about a 2-year-old Concord boy's death brought on by a dog attack. The canines in question were the family pit bulls. Stories like this, for better or for worse, spark anger from the community, which usually end in comment thread-based pit bull fatwas.

In an effort to gain clarity from this horrific situation, SFist asked Vegansaurus editor Laura Beck (a noted pit bull advocate, VP of Rocket Dog Rescue and part-time SFist scribe) for comment. Beck explains:

This tragedy is beyond heartbreaking, my heart goes out to everyone involved. I really hope that people learn all the facts before jumping to conclusions about the "vicious nature of pit bulls". There are very few deaths due to dog bites every year, and the only thing they seem to have in common is that the dogs are almost always unneutered males. Hopefully this will be a call to action to stop backyard breeding and encourage spay and neuter for all dogs, instead of a knee-jerk mob reaction to kill all pit bulls.

Beck goes on to tell us that, during her 8 years of dog rescue work, mainly with pit bulls, she's "never once been bitten by one."

For more information on persistent dog myths, please visit BadRap.org.