Strengthen dog laws to ensure little Cody didn't die in vain

Vancouver Sun

Thursday, December 30, 2004

The sad facts of the death of little Cody Fontaine have once again taught us a lesson we seem to be slow to learn.

Cody was a 3 1/2-year-old boy in Maple Ridge -- "a beautiful little child," the neighbours said, "playful and always happy."

Many of those neighbours wept when they heard he had been killed in his home on Monday by as many as three Rottweiler dogs and a collie.

But grief is not enough: When a young boy dies needlessly, we need to make certain that his death is not in vain.

The dogs that killed Cody were, quite simply, instruments of deadly force. Like handguns, they were no more or less deadly than the people who controlled them.

Rottweilers are large and potentially lethal dogs, but also like handguns, most of them pass their entire existence without harming or even frightening anyone.

Canadians learned the lesson about handguns a long time ago, and began restricting their ownership and use in the 1930s. The results have not been perfect, but judging by the carnage they cause south of the 49th parallel, where they are less controlled, we have done something right.

It is time to do the same thing with dangerous dogs.

Dogs, whether they be tiny lapdogs or large guard dogs, are controllable. Indeed, they must be controllable, or merely owning them would be unconscionably reckless.

Just as no one would hand a toddler a loaded gun to play with, no one should allow them to be endangered by any kind of domestic animal.

Most victims of fatal dog attacks are children, for obvious reasons. They are small and weak and unfamiliar with the ways of animals.

In a society that values the companionship of dogs, all parents need to ensure that their children are aware of the dangers, and that they learn the basic precautions, such as not approaching or touching dogs that are not known to them.

But even more importantly, we need to insist that all dog owners control their animals to whatever degree is needed to ensure that they do no harm. As with handguns, we need to back this determination with the full power of the law.

Other small children across Canada have been killed by dogs in recent years, often without criminal charges being laid in the aftermath. We can tolerate this no longer.

By acting now, we can perhaps assuage part of our collective responsibility in letting this dreadful fate befall a small and innocent child.