The recent fatal dog attack in San Francisco on Penn State alumna and former lacrosse player Diane Whipple has undoubtedly shocked the nation. What's even more appalling than the attack itself is the dogs' owners' reaction to it.

Husband-and-wife attorneys Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, Whipple's neighbors and the owners of one of the two 122-pound bull mastiff that killed her, are now blaming Whipple for her death.

The cause of her death, they claim? First, the attorney couple wrote in a statement to the press that Whipple did not close her apartment door when the dogs lunged toward her and that she struck Knoller in the face when the dogs attacked — allegations that completely contradict Knoller's earlier statements.

Second, Noel and Knoller claim the smell of her perfume or sweat, produced by steroids that they allege she took because she was an athlete, could have provoked the attack as well. Let's stop right there. Why should anyone be guilty for wearing perfume? Should we all stop wearing certain scents for fear that a dog might lunge at our throats and kill us? Furthermore, where did the allegations of steroid use come from? Were they deduced from the mere fact that she is a lacrosse coach? It is more than obvious that these statements pointing to Whipple's failure to save herself from attack are ludicrous and disgusting. How the owners' consciences could allow they to say such things after their dogs left Whipple lying in a pool of blood so terrifying that the police on the scene had to get trauma counseling is beyond reason.

What's more perplexing is the dogs' and their owners' suspicious backgrounds. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, Noel and Knoller were taking care of the two dogs for a prison inmate, who was helping to run an illegal business in training fighting guard dogs.

The absurd and tragic incident cries for some safety measures when it comes to ferocious dogs to ensure that pet owners are responsible.

Fortunately, some actions is already being taking in California. The San Francisco Animal Care and Control commissioner is proposing that dogs — especially big ones — in the area wear muzzles in public.

Although animal rights groups may claim this constitutes abuse, and perhaps such drastic measure are not necessary for all dogs, it is imperative that preventable tragedies such as Whipple's death do not occur again in San Francisco or anywhere else.