The article is poorly written, but the gist is this: stereotypes about ”pit bulls”–not any real behavior or incident–prompt the vast majority of calls to animal control about “pit bulls.” To quote the city environment director: “The issues with pit bulls do not support the number of investigations. But it’s the fear of pit bulls that’s still with us.”
The statistics provided by the article are relatively worthless in terms of assessing the ban’s effect on public safety, as they don’t cover overall dog population or dog bite trends–they are focused entirely on “pit bulls.”
And I have no idea why there’s a list of bullmastiff “facts” at the very end of the article, but I will try to find out.
Pit bull complaints still high
By PATRICK MALONEY
Last Updated: 21st November 2009, 3:47am
Four years after Ontario slapped a ban on new pit bulls, concerns about the squat, muscular dogs still prompt nearly one in every five animal complaints in London.
[...]“Over the last couple of years, the issues with pit bulls do not support the number of investigations. But it’s the fear of pit bulls that’s still with us,” [city environment director Jay Stanford] said yesterday.[...]
Full article retrieved 11/22/09 from http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2009/11/21/11848396-sun.html
StopBSL
weigoba
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Bull Mastiff facts are added at the end because the member for London and now the Attorney General of Ontario(Chris Bentley) has always used the Courtney Trempe fatality as justification for the ban and continues to insist that a Bull Mastiff is a ‘pit bull’.
He also has referred to a Dogue de Bordeaux as a ‘pit bull’
Courtney was killed by a Mastiff.
Her mother testified at the Ontario committee hearings against the ban and stated “….A bull mastiff, not a pit bull, killed my daughter…..”
http://www.ontla.on.ca/committee-proceedings/transcripts/files_html/2005-01-24_M009.htm#P889_245675
She was ignored by the Committee
Here are the Inquest recommendations for that fatality
http://www.doglegislationcouncilcanada.org/courtneyinquest.html
The Mastiff stats were because a cop APPARENTLY shot a couple of Mastiff’s (in the east end of London, Ontario) who attacked a cat and “appeared threatening” in London last week. I emphasize apparently as I just got that news while walking my dogs and bumping into a Mastiff owner who told me the story (I live vaguely in the area).
A link to the Mastiff story:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2009/11/21/11849351-sun.html
Quote: “The dogs, a dogue de Bordeau or French mastiff and an English-bred bullmastiff, were shot after lunging at several people, including a police officer who shot and wounded one dog on Elias St. shortly after 6 a.m. yesterday. ”
(and ya, I’m sure someone is doing the math on “hey! Pitbulls are not the only dogs that act bad, we need to add MORE breeds!!)