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Councillor urges pit-bull ban after jogger hurt
Dog, owner vanished after woman attacked on False Creek seawall

Kent Spencer
The Province

Monday, September 13, 2004

A Vancouver councillor wants pit bulls banned following an attack on a woman as she jogged on the seawall.

Jane Roberts, who was bitten on the bottom and on her arm, said last night she would support a ban.

Coun. Tim Stevenson said he will ask city staff to prepare a report on the "advisability" of banning "these vicious animals" in Vancouver.

"Pit bulls don't suit urban environs," said Stevenson. "They attack for no reason -- whatever spooks them at the time.

"You never hear of a cocker spaniel or a Labrador attacking someone.

"People have to feel safe. To be having a leisurely jog on the seawall and get attacked . . . It makes everybody apprehensive.

"If you're out, you're going to feel a little jittery if an animal comes your way.

"There is no need for it. Why are we putting up with it?

"For me, this is the last straw. Enough people have been viciously mauled."

Roberts was attacked on Saturday morning as she jogged around the south side of the False Creek seawall.

First the dog chomped on her buttocks, then let go and grabbed her by the arm.

"As the owner was trying to pull the dog off, the dog was also pulling the victim along the seawall," said Insp. Ted Shinbein.

Bystanders eventually subdued the dog.

But the dog's owner muzzled the dog and disappeared before police arrived.

Police are looking for him.

Roberts, who was treated for minor injuries in hospital and released, said the dog should be put down.

"I think he [the dog owner] has to have the dog put down," she told BCTV News on Global. "I think it would be very painful for him but he has to have the dog put down.

"The dog wasn't listening to him. It wasn't under his control. What if it was a kid? What if it would have got me in the face?

"It could have been way worse than it was. I feel like I got off lucky under the circumstances.

"Last night I woke up and was reliving the whole scenario. It's afterwards that you really think about it and it was very scary."

The situation began innocently enough.

"I was just jogging and the dog got me on the bum and pulled me down," Roberts told BCTV. "I was screaming and the man was desperately trying to pull the dog off me.

"He was shouting at the dog. I was shouting. It was all kind of behind me but I think he had his hand on the dog's collar.

"Finally, I got the dog off my butt and then the dog went right for my arm."

Roberts, who said she is a dog lover, told CTV News: "I'm certainly leaning towards a ban on that type of vicious dog.

"I love dogs but you have to wonder about this particular breed and why people would want them."

Vancouver already has a vicious dog bylaw which requires dangerous breeds to be muzzled.

Coun. Tim Louis said he doesn't know how "vigorously" it is enforced and added: "I will ask staff if they are doing everything they should to enforce the bylaw."

In August, two pit bulls mauled a senior in North Vancouver. The dogs will be destroyed unless owner Ken Whittle appears in court Sept. 22 to appeal.

Winnipeg has banned pit bulls for the past 10 years.

In Ontario, Attorney-General Michael Bryant is considering action to protect the public from pit bulls.