Johnson said he was told he could follow the officer to the pound, pay a $300 fine and get the dog back, but when he arrived, he was told the animal would be held for 21 days for an evaluation.

Delta's dog control bylaw has no provision for evaluations, nor does the provincial Dangerous Dogs Act. The only provision for holding a dog for 21 days in the Delta bylaws is if it is a female dog in heat. On what legal grounds is the Delta SPCA holding the Johnson's dog for 21 days? On what legal grounds is the SPCA allowed to do an assessment of a dog's temperament when the dog has no record of aggression and has not been seized as a result of any dangerous action of the dog's?

The Delta bylaw requires that owners of a dog that has behaved dangerously or a pit bull dog must pay a $300 annual licence, must show proof of $1 million liability insurance, must keep the dog inside the house or in an enclosure, must have the dog muzzled when in public, and must pay a first-time impound fee of $500 and a second-time fee of $1000.

All these legal strictures are not only reasonable, but necessary to protect people, usually children, from severe attacks by dogs that have shown a predilection to be dangerous, or are of a breed known to be deliberately predisposed to be dangerous. People who wish to own any dangerous breed of dog must accept the strictures that society must have in order to reduce the chance of death and mutilation by dangerous dogs. We have to note that the SPCA was fair to the Johnsons by giving them a warning the day before to confine or muzzle their dog.

It is possible that the Johnsons have declined to pay the fines and fees, in which case the dog becomes the property of the SPCA after 72 hours. At that point, the SPCA can kill the dog or assess it for suitability to be sold.

But the SPCA is in a conflict of interest, here and many thousands of times a year, by being both the dog catcher and the defender of animals. Both are sources of its revenue and the SPCA seems reluctant to give up any of its dog control money even when it means that the public gets to clearly see them wearing the black hat of dog control and disposal.