Critic savages dog fines
'MAN-STOPPERS': Activist says city needs to ban vicious breeds

John Bermingham
The Province

February 20, 2005

Vancouver City Council has been criticized for not acting to implement a city-wide ban on pit bulls in reaction to attacks by dogs like Clay, who bit a boy at the PNE in 2000.

Vancouver City Council's decision not to ban pit bulls is going to come back to bite it, one animal activist is warning.

Judy Stone, president of the Animal Advocates Society of B.C., says councillors committed a howler Thursday when they boosted fines for dangerous dogs who attack and leaned toward owner education instead of banning vicious breeds.

"They've simply postponed the inevitable," Stone said Friday. "What is the City of Vancouver waiting for, or the province of B.C. waiting for?"

Stone wants a B.C.-wide ban on all "man-stopper" breeds, such as pit bulls, and exotic dogs, such as Presa Canarios, the 150-pound fighting dogs that caused the gruesome death of a San Francisco woman in 2001.

Stone said the fighting dogs are currently being bred and sold for $1,500 apiece in the Fraser Valley.

South American breeds like the Fila Brasiliero, Argentine Dogo and Italian mastiff are also being bred in B.C., Stone said.

"These dogs are coming because we've done nothing to stop the leading edge, which is pit bulls," Stone argued. "I don't see how it's rational in a sane society to permit huge, dangerous dogs amongst us.

"Once a pit bull starts, you have to shoot it dead. Even hitting it with a two-by-four won't stop it," she said. "The original bull terriers were bred to hold on to one-ton bulls by the nose, not letting them move and not to let go. [They] don't let go until [they're] dead."

Vancouver retailer Tony Aronson's 10-month-old puppy, Ronson, learned the power of a pit bull all too well when he was mauled at a kennel earlier this month.

"His chest and face had been ripped open," Aronson said, adding that 20 stitches were required to close the wounds and vet and travel bills have climbed to about $1,800.

Despite the injuries to his dog and the cost of Ronson's recovery, Aronson says he is not sure if banning dangerous breeds is the answer. He believes the responsibility for a dog's behaviour rests with the owner.

"I absolutely love animals, all kinds. I find it hard to believe the pit bull itself is responsible," he says. "I'm really torn up about it."

Coun. Tim Stevenson, who originally asked for a crackdown, said he received 300 e-mails from

pit bull owners, more than 200 of them from the U.S. who found out about his proposal through the Internet.

"They are incredibly well-organized," Stevenson said Friday.

"The idea of a ban just has them frothing at the mouth. 'You should be able to have a gun and have a dog,' that kind of mentality."

Britain, France and Italy have banned pit bulls and the American owners are worried their dogs would be next, Stevenson said.

On the other side, he figures he heard from fewer than 20 people in the Lower Mainland who have either been attacked by a pit bull or knew a victim.

"You just have individual people who've been bitten or attacked," he said. "They don't get together. They don't have kennel clubs, or bite clubs or victim clubs."

Stevenson said that one father of a five-year-old boy who approached him said a pit bull ripped open his son's stomach for no reason.

"The thing I found most upsetting is that the pit bull owners are very quick to try and save their pit bull, but you hardly get any sympathy for the victims at all," said Stevenson.

At the Thursday council meeting, all 12 speakers supported pit bulls, with no one speaking against.

Stone said she felt it was pointless to speak at council, because she knew the pit bull owners would be overwhelmingly opposed.

The 200-member HugABull group co-director Danielle Cross told councillors that breed-specific bans don't work.

"A ban on pit bulls does nothing to address the 95 per cent of other bites by other dogs," she said.

She said German shepherds, spaniels and golden retrievers are worse biters than pit bulls.

"A ban would be punishing 99 per cent of pit bulls -- beloved family pets," she said.

The city has only just started tracking dog attacks by specific breed.

Last year, there were 110 recorded incidents of dogs attacking other dogs and 77 of dogs attacking humans. That's down from the 2003 figures -- 112 attacks on dogs and 83 attacks on humans.

The Vancouver parks board hasn't had a recorded pit-bull attack at any of its 29 off-leash parks. But it also will be tracking future incidents.

Council is now asking Attorney-General Geoff Plant for province-wide legislation on dangerous dogs. The B.C. government has previously gone on record against breed-specific bans.