Cedric Benson looked like the answer to the Green Bay Packers' running problems early in the season.

The troubled running back showed a great deal of promise before being sidelined for the year with an injury.

Benson, who has a history of misdeeds, is most likely out of the picture for the Packers next year. One of the reasons may well be his recent encounter with officials in Manitowoc County because of his pets.

It seems that Benson owns some of those delightful little pets called rottweilers and two of them were found running around a neighbor's farm several weeks ago.

According to the complaint taken during the second incident, Benson's girlfriend showed up that afternoon to ask if they had seen the dogs.

"When the (neighbor's) son went into the barn he found the two dogs chewing on the legs of the live calves," said the complaint. "He was able to get the dogs off the calves and contact (Benson) where he came and retrieved his dogs."

Benson's two rottweiler dogs reportedly "bit 17 of 19 calves" at his neighbor's farm. Benson said he had built a fence for the dogs but they managed to escape.

You never read reports about dachshunds or cocker spaniels ever attacking calves or people or little kids. It seems like every time you read one of these stories it's either a pit bull or a rottweiler behind the attack.

And something ought to be done about it.

There is nothing quite as frightening as a vicious dog on the loose. A number of years ago I was in a field with my lab puppy when a doberman on the loose attacked it. I foolishly reached in, got a leg of attacker, swung him away and watched as he rolled over on his haunches, flattened his ears and got ready to go after me. I picked up my puppy and took off for my house, barely beating the dog to the porch.

I know there are pit bull and rottweiler love groups who claim it's not the dogs who are dangerous, but the owners. If you've ever seen a dog fight between dogs like this you'd know that these people don't know what they're talking about.

I'm not a guy who normally supports banning things. But I'd be in favor of a law that banned ownership of these dogs who are bred to fight and attack. Just like we should ban attack weapons, we should also ban dogs that aren't much good for anything other than attacking people or animals.

If we see someone walking down the street with one of those animals we should issue a ticket with a big fine and confiscate the dog. We'd do that if somebody was carrying a brick of cocaine down the street and these dogs are a lot more dangerous that some cocaine.

I love dogs and have owned one almost all my life. Some have been better than others, but none of them have had the kind of temperament or fear-inspiring behavior as pit bulls and rottweilers.

So, just as we will probably say goodbye to Cedric Benson, we should also make him take his dogs with him and use him as an example of why we ought to keep these dogs off the street as we try to prevent an attack that is sure to come someday.

Editor's note: OnMilwaukee.com Publisher Andy Tarnoff has published a rebuttal to Dave Begel's blog here, titled "It's not the dog's fault."