By Brennan Clarke
Victoria News Mar 31,2004
Fines for careless and irresponsible dog owners in Victoria may increase by as much as 1,000 per cent in the wake of last week's unprovoked pit bull attack on a local man's seeing-eye dog.
Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, a devoted dog owner herself, last week led a chorus of calls for tougher penalties on dog owners whose pets attack people or other animals.
"We currently have a $50 fine for leaving a dog in a public place without a restraint and I think we need to increase the fine, especially for repeat offenders," she said during council's committee-of-the-whole meeting.
Following last week's attack, which seriously injured a Labrador retriever seeing-eye dog, animal control officials determined that one of two pit bulls involved in the incident had previously attacked another dog in Nanaimo.
Thornton-Joe spoke against placing restrictions on certain breeds, suggesting that "it's not the dog it's the owner."
However, Coun. Dean Fortin said the breed is at least partly to blame.
"That's like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people," Fortin said, adding that half and quarter-breed animals could make a breed-specific bylaw unworkable.
Coun. Helen Hughes made the strongest statement of all, suggesting the city should consult its lawyers over the incident.
"I think we have to take a strong stand on this and consider going to court," she said.
Outside the meeting Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe proposed increasing the fine from $50 to $500.
"We need some real stringent fines in place to make the pet owners understand they need to be responsible," he said.
One of the pit bulls involved in last week's attack has been destroyed with the owner's consent.
However, the owner of the other offending animal refused to have the animal put down, forcing the animal control service to keep it impounded while the city seeks a "destruction order" from the courts.
Compared to other municipalities, Victoria's animal control bylaws provide for little more than a slap on the wrist.
Following an incident in 1999 when a young girl was mauled by a pit bull, Nanaimo city council slapped restrictions on six different pit bull breeds.
The fine for allowing one of the restricted breeds to be at large is $500 for the first offence and $1,000 for the second.
"As well, when a dog attacks another animal or a person, it can be deemed vicious, which is an automatic $1,000 fine," said Peter Wipper, Nanaimo's manager of regulations and risk management.
"After that, any dangerous dog that is off its property has to be muzzled."
Last week, Prince George council proposed a set of animal bylaws containing a $200 fine for a dog "molesting" a person or an animal, and a $200 fine under the offence heading "vicious dog at large."
Fines are $150 for having a vicious dog in a public place or at large.
Vicious dogs have become a liability issue in recent years, with some insurance companies refusing to cover people with dangerous pets.
Don Brown, chief bylaw enforcement officer with the Capital Regional District, said dog bylaws vary between local municipalities. But some, such as Metchosin, Esquimalt and View Royal, use a CRD bylaw that imposes a $100 licence fee for dogs that have been deemed dangerous.
Those owners are then required to have the dog "muzzled and under control at all times," Brown said.
But breed-specific bylaws "open up a can of worms." Brown said.
City of Victoria staff have been asked to revise the municipality's dog control bylaws and deliver a report to council by the end of April.