It's not every day that Miss Universe Canada knocks on a four-year-old's door, but when it came to White Rock's Emma Cranford, Sahar Biniaz simply couldn't stay away.
After all, the two share a traumatic bond. Both bear the scars of pit bull attacks – Biniaz on her chest, from an attack 11 years ago, and Emma on her face, from an attack Aug. 23.
"I can understand what she went through and she's very brave," Biniaz said from her perch in the family's living room Friday, directing the last comment towards Emma.
"This is why my title is so valuable."
Biniaz contacted the family Thursday, after learning of the attack on Emma, and has pledged to raise awareness of the need for greater restrictions on pit bulls and other dangerous dogs.
The issue has been a hot topic ever since Emma's family began calling for a ban on pit bulls in the province.
A second, separate attack on a Kelowna child Aug. 25 further fueled the storm.
Biniaz said while she doesn't believe that banning the breed will help, the province should consider implementing regulations requiring pit bulls to be leashed and muzzled whenever they are in public.
It is the "most common-sense" move, she said. Fines for violating the rules could be used to benefit the animals.
The dog that attacked Biniaz was a pet that had never shown aggression before, she said. While a dog owner herself, she said she never got over her fear of pit bulls and other large dogs.
"This is not about animal rights and it's not about hating a certain breed," Biniaz said of the call for restrictions. "It's, let's stop this from happening."
Biniaz said the opportunities she has to raise awareness of such issues as Miss Universe Canada is "the reason why my title is so valuable."
"These are the type of things I should be doing."
The BCSPCA has said an outright pit bull ban is unworkable. Paul Stanton, White Rock's director of planning and development services doesn't go that far, but said the city's previous research and legal advice suggests it is easier said than done, particularly on a local level.
"It is complicated because there are so many different variants and cross-breeds that would require genetics testing for any bylaw to hold up in court," he wrote in an email response to Peace Arch News' questions.
"Smaller cities like White Rock need further assistance from the province in this regard, because the resources are simply not available to deal with a growing problem."
He noted the city's new animal-control bylaw gives better scope for dealing with nuisance dogs, and aggressive and dangerous dogs, without an outright ban on specific breeds.
In the White Rock incident – in which Emma was mauled by a pit bull belonging to her uncle’s girlfriend at a family barbecue, causing wounds to her jaw that required 40 stitches – the dog was put down the following day.
In the wake of the Peace Arch News' report on the attack, the paper's website has been inundated with comments.
Many of them are from pit bull owners who, themselves, seem divided between blaming bad owners and irresponsible breeders for maulings that have prejudiced many against the dogs.
In the latest incident, young Hayden Bush was camping with his family near Kelowna when the pit bull he was looking at – a dog that belonged to a family friend – lunged at him, biting his face in two places.
After being rushed to hospital, doctors had to use 32 stitches to close the wounds.
The attack has added further fuel to the fire for advocates of a ban on pit bulls and other allegedly 'vicious' breeds.
Currently, there is a ban on the breed in Ontario and while people who already had a pit bull when the ban came into effect are allowed to keep their animals, they must be muzzled when out in public.
Stanton said it would be "a great assistance if the Province of BC could follow Ontario's lead, because it would be a very large drain on the cities' resources to try to effect such a ban."
A big problem, he said, is that many of the dogs that cause problems in White Rock aren't owned by residents and are just visiting the city on day trips.
"This is where a ban at the provincial level could have far more effect and make it more manageable for the city."
Jayme Bush, mother of the latest victim, was a guest on a Kelowna radio show Wednesday morning, and Elizabeth Cranford, Emma's mother, called in to the show to echo her call for a ban on pit bulls.
Cranford said she used to feel it was the fault of the owner when she heard about pit bull attacks, but she does not feel that way in light of the attack on her daughter.
She said she knows the owner of the dog that bit her daughter is a good, caring and vigilant owner who looked after her dog and treated it very well.
Her daughter, she said, had been playing with the dog just a few days earlier, and had simply walked past the dog at the barbecue when it pinned her between a bench and a fence as it bit her on the lower part of her face.
The problem is the breed itself, Cranford said, joining Bush in urging that it’s time 'vicious' breeds like pit bulls are banned in B.C.
– with files from Alex Browne & Alistair Waters