Courtney Trempe of Stouffville, Ontario, just north of Toronto, was as active an 8-year-old as you'd ever meet. She took music and ballet lessons and played hockey and baseball. She loved animals.

On April 29, 1998, Courtney came home with her school dinosaur project. She went out to play at a neighbour’s house. The children asked to play with the pet dog next door - a 120-pound bull mastiff.

The dog sniffed Courtney, sat back, and then lunged at her neck. Courtney died from massive blood loss and asphyxiation.

"It devastated us," Courtney's mother, Donna Tempe, told Marketplace. "She was just the love of our lives. Honestly, we were probably in shock for a good year and a half to two years after this happened."

The bull mastiff was put down. As a result of Courtney's death, the local township passed a vicious dog bylaw. Among its provisions, dogs designated vicious:

• Must be leashed and muzzled when off the owner's property
• Must be fenced in when on the owner's property
• Cannot be walked by anyone under 16-years-old

The bylaw defines vicious as any dog with a history of attacking a human or another animal.

The bull mastiff that killed Courtney Trempe was owned by Toronto lawyer Todd Reybroek. "I wish to God that it never had happened," Reybroek told Marketplace. "I feel responsible that it was certainly my dog that did it and I feel terrible, sick to my stomach. "There isn't a day goes by that I wish it didn't happen."

Attack was a shock

The attack has scarred Reybroek's family as well. His marriage fell apart after Courtney's death. Reybroek says he'll never own another dog. But he says he sees nothing he could have done differently to prevent the tragedy.

Reybroek says his bull mastiff was well trained and obedient. He concedes the dog had attacked a few neighbourhood dogs but it had never shown any signs of aggression towards humans.

"I'd never seen him make a move to another person at all, let alone a child," Reybroek remembers. "He was really docile, not only with my own daughter who could take food out of his bowl and she'd tug his ears in a playful way and she'd follow him around. There was never a problem. I trusted him absolutely or I wouldn't have had him in the house with me."

Trust in dogs may be misplaced: study

Most people trust the family dog, but a federal study suggests that trust is misplaced. The study finds dogs we know and trust are the worst offenders for bites and attacks on people.

According to the study, the most common biters are

• German shepherds
• Cocker spaniels
• Rottweilers
• Golden retrievers

Other than rottweilers, the breeds named are among the most common in Canadian homes.

Emile Therien has seen enough evidence to convince him that more needs to be done to protect people from dogs. Therien heads the Canada Safety Council, which is usually associated with Elmer the Safety Elephant and road safety. The council has launched a public awareness campaign on dog safety.

In Winnipeg, pit bulls like this one have been banned, and dog attacks are down dramatically since the city passed its bylaw.

"We estimate, based on the American experience, and our statistics, that reliably there are … 400,000 to 500,000 bites in this country," Therien told Marketplace. "It's a major, major public health problem. I think a lot of people have really buried their heads in the sand and it's about time we address it."

So how do you address the issue? How should we reduce dog bites and attacks? Some Canadian cities and towns have taken steps to try to reduce dog bites and attacks. They have enacted vicious dog bylaws. Many others have not and will not.

Some argue that educating children and levying stiff fines on owners who don't control their pets are the answer. But some Canadians want vicious dogs outlawed.

The breed most often targeted for outright bans is the pit bull. It was originally bred to fight other dogs. The pit bull has powerful jaws; the injuries from a bite can be particularly brutal.

In 1989, a pit bull attacked nine-year-old Candace Allard of Winnipeg, leaving her permanently scarred.

A year later, Winnipeg banned pit bulls. It was the first major Canadian city to do so. Pit bulls purchased prior to the ban must be licensed, tagged as dangerous, leashed and muzzled when they leave home. Owners must take out $300,000 in liability insurance.

Since the bylaw was enacted, the number of serious dog attacks in the city has dropped from about 25 a year to one or two.

The neighbouring cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario also banned pit bulls after a number of incidents. The results were similar.

Kitchener city councillor Jim Ziegler says despite opposition from dog owners, the ban was only logical.

"I say you have to put people before dogs," Ziegler told Marketplace. "If there's a breed that can't be trusted, you have to get rid of that breed. And if there's a specific dog that can't be trusted, you have to get rid of the dog. And I don't care if your family loves that animal; if it's a danger to other people you have to get rid of it. It doesn't have human rights."

'People for Pit bulls'

Not everyone sees banning breeds as the way to go. Theresa Dingsdale of Cobourg organized 'People for Pit bulls' to lobby for the breed.

Dingsdale says crack down on breeders, muzzle dogs, increase fines, license dogs and even dog owners, but don't ban breeds based on headlines.

"Before we make decisions based on breed or make decisions based on how it looks we really need to do some research," Dingsdale told Marketplace. "Let's find out a little about these dogs, talk a little about the positive attributes, or the breeds in general instead of listening to isolated incidents."

Emile Therien of the Canada Safety Council would ban any breed proven to be frequent and dangerous biters. But first he wants proof: a nationwide database of dog bites.

"At some point you know some politician or some bureaucrat is going to have to -pardon the pun- bite into this and say we have a problem, let's look at it. If it requires doing something let's do it."

But John and Donna Trempe, whose daughter Courtney was killed by a dog in a neighbour’s backyard, aren't so sure banning breeds is the answer.

"There's always going to be the good and the bad, I think, in any breed," Donna Trempe said. "I don't think you're ever going to ban every dog that's going to bite, you should be responsible for it."

Todd Reybroek -whose bull mastiff killed Courtney- isn't so sure either.

"When you look at the statistics of dog bites … bull mastiffs don't even sort of show up on the radar," Reybroek said. "They're below dogs like cocker spaniels in terms of bites. The problem is it might be a lot like trying to swat a fly with a sledgehammer. Once you start banning breeds, where do you draw the line?"

Donna Trempe warns other mothers and fathers to be vigilant: "Don't leave your kids alone with dogs ... If you think that it has a tendency to bite, muzzle it. It's not worth it. One child is not worth it. Any child's life is not worth it."