Will a ban on pit bulls solve our dangerous dog problem?
Opponents hire a legal top gun to fight for a breed that technically doesn't exist

Moe Milstein
Vancouver Sun

Monday, September 19, 2005

As of August, pit bulls are now banned by law in the province of Ontario. Although pit bulls currently owned will not be destroyed, they will have to be sterilized before October 28th. When walking in public, they must be leashed and muzzled. Owners breaking the law face fines of $10,000 and up to six months in jail.

Opponents of the law have acquired one of Canada's pre-eminent lawyers, Clayton Ruby, to argue their case. Mr. Ruby contends that the law is "overbroad" and too vague. Others think that the law is just plain stupid and will be impossible to enforce.

Ontario has banned not just the pit bull but also Staffordshire bull terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers,and American pit bull terriers or any dog that looks like any of these.

The main problem with breed-specific legislation (BSL) is that there is no objective way to identify a dog breed. DNA, blood tests, and tissue typing are of no help in differentiating a pit bull from a Cocker Spaniel from a Chihuahua. Adding a touch of the surreal to the situation is the fact that the pit bull does not officially exist in Canada. It is not recognized as a breed by either the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) or the American Kennel Club. The stubbornly independent Americans have more than one kennel club, and the United Kennel Club does recognize the American Pit Bull Terrier.

Confused? It gets worse. The American Staffordshire Terrier is descended from the American Pit Bull Terrier but underwent a name change in 1972 --presumably to avoid the stigma of its wrong-side-of-the-tracks ancestry. It too is banned by the legislation. The Staffordshire Bull Terrier is recognized by the English Kennel Club, but its defenders maintain there is no pit bull blood in its lineage.

So authorities find themselves in the position of banning a breed that doesn't officially exist along with any breed that looks like a pit bull.

Meanwhile, statistics about the role certain breeds play in attacks -- 67 per cent of fatal attacks by dogs are attributed to pit bulls and Rottweilers -- are suspect because identification of the breed involved is sometimes inaccurate.

Opposed to BSL are not only the CKC but also the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and all the major humane organizations. While no one disputes the need to address the problem that some 20 people in the US and one to two people in Canada are killed by dogs every year and many more are bitten, controversy swirls about the best way to do so.

A measure of how high feelings run can be seen in the pages of Dogs in Canada, the magazine of the CKC. Writing in the May issue, a passionate defender of pit bulls invokes the famous admonition of Pastor Niemoller, "First they came for the Communists ... then the Jews ... then they came for me but there was no one left to speak to." He then adds his own lines to this injunction against passivity in the face of evil, "Then they came for my breed and there was no one left to speak to."

In the same issue, Julie King, Political Action Chair of the Staffordshire Terrier Club of Canada, complains, "We have had our breed stolen from us."

The Canadian Kennel Club's outrage is perhaps a little late. Critics charge that the CKC's preoccupation with pedigrees and arbitrary standards of beauty disqualifies it from meaningful participation in this discussion. The CKC has no mechanism for assessing the health or mental state of the animals it registers, and it cares not if the product is a psychotic killer or a witless imbecile.

Meanwhile, people are justifiably frightened and suspicious of certain dogs. They care little for the fine distinctions of pedigree or the wounded feelings of the CKC and its breed clubs. And some, like myself, find analogies to the Holocaust a little bit over the top.

The problem of dangerous dogs in urban society is real and urgent. Unfortunately, it will take more than the banning of a particular breed to solve it.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005