January 7, 2003

Dr Fred Bass, Councillor,
City of Vancouver

Dear Dr Bass,

This morning, on CBC radio's newscast, you said that there will be, or you hope there will be, public meetings on the subject of isolated dogs that are dangerously desocialized by isolation.

Can you please tell me if meetings are being planned and if so, will you ask staff to tell me in enough time for AAS to put together a presentation?

On another matter, in the same newscast you said that you were not aware that women were being forced to steal dogs (because the City and the SPCA would do nothing to relieve the dogs' suffering).

In our report, "IT'S TIME!" to the City, June 2001, one of the attachments was an article in Vancouver Magazine on this, http://www.animaladvocates.com/release-the-hounds.htm>.

And at our appearance before Council September 20, 2001, I again talked about this:

"Thank God that hundreds of people a year are not cowardly. They go out in the middle of the night and do something. Most of these people are women who are terrified of the abuser and sometimes of the dog too. But they do it! They are not hysterics. They are doctors, academics, lawyers, judges, police officers, ACO’s, Shaughnessy matrons, and welfare mothers. They are young people and a woman as old as eighty-two. In one case, a woman eight months pregnant.

"And they are doing your job! Your avoidance is forcing them to break the law and put themselves at risk."

I also warned that the City was derelict in its duty to protect its citizens from harm form these dogs in our presentation:

"Avoidance of responsibility by the City is putting its citizens at risk of dogs that have been de-socialized through isolation and neglect and beatings, to the point that they attack when they get loose. And yes, dogs in Vancouver are being beaten, by owners who don’t like dogs, who only have them to guard homes, cars in garages, and grow-op drug houses, to make them “tough”. These dogs are almost always one of the big breeds; mostly Rottweillers, and German shepherds.

"Most victims of dog bites are children – the research in our report shows this. The City of Vancouver is derelict in its duty if it does not adopt laws making it illegal to de-socialize dogs to the point they are a danger to Vancouver’s citizens.

"Is the City waiting to be sued by a citizen bitten by a de-socialized dog when it can be shown that the City is aware of all the evidence and research that proves that these dogs are a probable danger to the public?"

(Full presentation, attached)

Judy Stone
President, Animal Advocates Society of BC

January 7, 2003

Councillor Tim Louis,
City of Vancouver

Dear Councillor Louis,

Thank you for the concern you have shown not only for the victims of desocialized yard dogs but for the dogs themselves.

In our presentation to Council, September 20, 2001, we said:

"Do the right thing and only good will follow. That is what the citizens of Vancouver want from you."

Adopting a bylaw that prevents the desocialization of yard dogs, and a program of education for recent immigrants, fearful of crime, who are using dogs as cheap alarms (often on the advice of Vancouver Police), is the only way to ensure (as much as possible) that these kinds of dogs will no longer exist in Vancouver. We are hoping that the City will not just adopt a "TWO CHAINS NOT ONE" bylaw, because no one can assure that any confinement is foolproof.

A happy dog, well socialized to other dogs and humans, is the surest prevention of harmful attacks and the surest prevention of cruelty to dogs.

Judy Stone
President, Animal Advocates Society of BC