A Pitbull owner has issued a heartfelt apology for her animal’s attack on a small dog which fuelled controversy over Bermuda’s banned list.The woman described the offending dog, Diamond, as a much-loved family pet which is popular with children, but escaped its home on the afternoon of the incident.Her seven-year-old daughter is heartbroken at the prospect of Diamond being put down, according to the mother, who asked to be named as Mrs Smith.Warwick resident Richard Keane says his 30lb terrier-mongrel Meg needed 15 stitches after her neck and chest were ripped open in an unprovoked attack by Diamond in his Harbour Road garden on Saturday, May 12.Mr Keane reacted by calling for Environment Minister Marc Bean to explain why he hopes to relax a ban on Pitbulls.Mr Bean is refusing to answer any questions about his plan, which he announced on a ZBM talk show earlier this month.Mrs Smith told The Royal Gazette Diamond is now in the hands of a dog warden and she understands a court case is imminent to determine the pet’s future.“We’re so sorry for what happened. The children left the door slightly ajar and Diamond must have followed them out and then this has happened,” she said.“We miss her and we are very sorry for what has happened and we feel fully responsible, but we really, really want her to come home. We are putting in extra safety precautions to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”Diamond previously belonged to Mrs Smith’s 90-year-old grandfather who died last Christmas and, according to Mrs Smith, enjoys playing dress-up games and giving rides to her daughter.Mr Keane described Diamond as “an aggressive piece of meat”, but Mrs Smith argued: “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Pitbull or not. All dogs have the potential to be aggressive with each other, even if they are from the same household.“They are territorial, that’s their job.”Mr Bean has told radio listeners he could add Pitbulls to a list of dogs which are no longer banned, including Rottweilers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and German Shepherds, as long as their owners act responsibly.It’s understood Mr Bean met a committee of experts earlier this week to discuss the subject.The Minister declined to comment when asked if he had come to a decision, or had any thoughts on the ban.Last night the OBA Michael Fahy issued a statement which said: “We have concluded that the breed should remain on the banned list until Government gets serious about making the current laws and regulations effective.“If the law had been enforced strictly, for example, there would be no pit bulls in Bermuda under the age of eight years. But there are more pit bulls than ever now.“Illegal breeding of pit bulls has to be stopped. There is only a small gene pool of these animals in Bermuda, and inbreeding, which is rampant, contributes to the aggression and unpredictability of the local breed population.“The dog licensing system in the Ministry of the Environment seems to be ineffective. There is a huge number of unlicensed dogs on the system (and no doubt not on the system), and the animal wardens seem to have been unable to bring their owners to book.”Mr Fahy said the Dogs Act should be re-examined, and amended to provide a range of severe penalty options for owners who fail to take proper care of their dogs, in addition to ordering that a dog should be put down.He said owners of dogs that attack other animals or humans must be prosecuted, and they “must understand that careless handling of their dogs can result in serious penalties, perhaps including being sent to prison”.“Once these things measures have been put in place and Government has demonstrated its ability to move forward with them, we believe pit bulls could be moved from the banned list to a ‘Restricted List’, which imposes conditions which must be met by the owner of a pit bull,” he said.