Just found another gem. Need to remove an attribute? That's simple too!
<?php
$xml = <<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Animals>
<Dog breed="chihuahua"/>
</Animals>
EOF;
$animals = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
echo $animals->Dog->asXML();
// <Dog breed="chihuahua"/>
unset($animals->Dog['breed']);
echo $animals->Dog->asXML();
// <Dog/>
?>