SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A California jury must decide if a dog mauling is murder because the dog's owner did not control his dog.

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The case involves a rare dog, bred by only a few breeders in the entire country.

One of those dog breeders lives near Akron, Ohio, and told NewsChannel5's Paul Kiska that this type of dog is not naturally vicious.

Dog breeder James Kolber visited the Akron family who got Mo-Jo from him.

Mo-Jo is a 5-month-old presa canario puppy that already weighs 60 pounds.

In a year, Mo-Jo will look like his 150-pound father, Doc. A presa canario is what mauled and killed San Francisco lacrosse coach Diane Whipple last year. The debate about whether people should own these dogs has raged on ever since.

Kolber said that the dogs are not natural born killers -- it's all in how they're raised.

"The owner, in my opinion, makes the difference," he said. "They're gentle; you can tell by their interaction with kids."

But some officials disagree.

"It could turn on you at any time," said Steven Thompson, a Summit County Humane Society officer.

Thompson said that "presa canarios" means "crushing dog of the Canary Islands."

"A presa canario is a bunch of vicious dogs bred into one -- bred for fighting," he said.

Kolber said that the rare dogs can be gentle giants if trained properly, but he admitted that he's stopped selling them for now, because too many people want to raise them to fight.

"It's made them popular with the wrong people, who want to shoot them up with steroids and parade them down the street," he said.

For more information on these dogs, visit summithumane.org.