A dog rescue organisation president has called for American Staffordshire terriers and pit bulls to be "bred out of existence".
A coronial inquest heard on Monday that a family dog killed a baby at Kariong on the Central Coast in July 2021.
Dog Rescue Newcastle president Sue Barker said there were "dog attacks all the time", with the Central Coast among the worst areas in the state for the offence.
NSW government data showed dog attacks in the state last year caused one death, 283 hospitalisations, 665 people requiring medical treatment and 819 minor injuries.
It also revealed there were 797 incidents of American Staffordshire terrier attacks.
This breed was the worst offender for attacks by far.
"There's no place in society for these dogs because they can turn," Ms Barker told ACM.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised about people registering pit bulls as American Staffordshire terriers. Nonetheless, Ms Barker said these breeds should all be "desexed and bred out of existence".
"I can't tell the difference between an American staffie and a pit bull. They're all dangerous dogs as far as I'm concerned," she said. "They have the capacity to be killers."
The five-week-old baby killed at Kariong in 2021 had been in the arms of its mother, who was asleep.
The father had bought the dog from a breeder advertising American Staffordshire terriers on Gumtree.
Concerns were raised before the baby's death that the dog was an American pit bull cross-breed.
The dog was microchipped in 2016 and recorded as an American Staffordshire terrier.
A month before the baby's death, Central Coast Council rangers received a report that the dog had killed a cocker spaniel from a neighbouring property.
The council issued the owners a notice that it would declare the animal a restricted breed and impose control measures.
The owners asked for more time to respond.
Councils aren't proactive enough about making people desex and register their animals. They're much stricter in Queensland
- Sue Barker
Ms Barker said the dog "should have been euthanised straight away after it killed the baby".
As well as American Staffordshire terriers and pit bulls, she said hunting and pigging dogs should not be in society.
Most of these dog types often "go to the wrong owners - macho idiots".
"Councils aren't proactive enough about making people desex and register their animals. They're much stricter in Queensland."
Ms Barker had been involved in dog rescue since the mid 1980s.
"Decades ago when I did rescue, we didn't have any of these problems. We didn't have dog attacks," she said.
In NSW, restricted dogs are listed as American pit bull terrier or pit bull terrier; Japanese tosa; Argentinian fighting dog and Brazilian fighting dog.
