With families worried their children may not be safe, Worthing animal charity WADARS has been asked to take in several rottweilers since the attack two weeks ago.

While it is obvious no family should keep a rottweiler, or any dog, if they have any reason to think a child is at risk, maybe a kneejerk reaction against all rottweilers is not necessarily the answer.

Any dog has the potential to be aggressive.

Rottweilers are more powerful than most, so if they do attack they will do more damage.

But there are cases of other breeds of dogs attacking people which seem to go uncommented on.

My uncle owned a rough collie (the breed more commonly associated with TV dog Lassie) who used to bite people on the bottom on a regular basis.

She once trapped a policeman up a ladder for half an hour.

If she had been a rottweiler or another big breed she may well have had to wear a muzzle or even be put down.

But because she was not a stereotypical "dangerous" dog, no-one seemed to mind that much (not even the policeman).

Certain dogs bred to be aggressive can pose a threat, but does that mean all dogs that have the potential to harm should be condemned?

If it does, even if we don't want to admit it, then any family dog could be condemned. Any dog can be unpredictable, especially around children.

We're known as a nation of animal lovers and this may be part of the problem.

We attach so many human emotions to our pets that we're outraged when they act like, well, animals.

I know I am just as guilty of this as any other pet owner – I honestly believed when I went away to university that my snake (that's right, not even a cute dog, but a reptile) pined for me.

Absurd maybe, but after having a pet for 10 years it's hard to believe they don't care if you disappear for months at a time.

Any dog can be dangerous, so maybe sometimes we should take a bit more responsibility for the actions of the animals we claim to care so much about.