Dangerous Dogs Act permits SPCA and City to seize dogs, BEFORE attacks

In 2000, the provincial Government passed a dangerous dog act that amended the Local Government Act and amended the Vancouver Charter.

MISCELLANEOUS STATUTES
AMENDMENT ACT (No. 2), 2000
HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, enacts as follows:

28 Division 1 of Part 22 is amended by adding the following section:

Dangerous dogs
707.1 (1) In this section:

"animal control officer" means

(a) a municipal employee, officer or agent designated by the council as an animal control officer for the purposes of this section,

(AAS: this means Vancouver City Pound Animal Control Officers)

(b) a peace officer;

(AAS: SPCA Special Provincial Constables are peace officers, and there are two of them at the Vancouver SPCA. So it seems that both the ACO's at the City Pound, and the Vancouver or the BC SPCA can seize dangerous dogs in Vancouver.)

"dangerous dog" means a dog that

(a) has killed or seriously injured a person,

(b) an animal control officer has reasonable grounds to believe is likely to kill or seriously injure a person, or the dog presents an imminent danger to the public

(AAS: Will Davis and Company, Shenica White's lawyers, try to show that Vancouver ACO's had reasonable grounds to believe that the two dogs that attacked Shenica White might seriously injure a person? That hinges on whether rumours that the dogs attacked a small dog while loose once are true, or that any of the seventeen reports from the neighbours made to the Community Policing organization did get to the SPCA or the pound are true. AAS's experience is that the pound and/or the SPCA is always told by neighbours that a dog is behaving in an aggressive and menacing way. We think it likely that people complained directly to the SPCA and/or the Pound about these dogs. We know that there are dogs in Vancouver that have already bitten, and dogs that display equally menacing behaviour, that both the pound and the SPCA know about, but which neither are taking any action on. (See 'Lily" http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/1916 )