Councillor pushing for pitbull ban in Fruitvale

Lana Rodlie
The Daily Times

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

If Fruitvale councillor Allan Grieve gets his way, there will be no more pitbulls in the village.

Grieve is leading the move to ban dangerous dogs from the village, and is particularly concerned about a specific dog that lives on Coughlin Road.

He claims the three-year-old black pitbull, owned by Tasha Neil and Ryan Mailey, would have torn apart his tiny dog if he hadn't acted quickly by pulling his dog's chain.

The incident happened Feb. 9 when Grieve was walking his dog, he told council Monday night.

"I was walking in the middle of the road and was backed right up to the edge of the road. I scooped up my dog."

The pitbull tugged on Grieve's pant-leg and lunged for his dog, he said.

"I was quite agitated," he said.

But Neil told a different story on Monday and made an emotional plea for council to look at the fact that her dog has never actually bitten anyone.

"The dog did not touch (Grieve) or jump up at him," Neil argued. "She didn't leave our property... He told the bylaw officer that he won't stop until my dog is destroyed. She hasn't hurt anybody."

When originally reporting this incident, Grieve told the SPCA about two other people who allegedly had run-ins with Neil's dog.

Rowat Halifax confirmed to the SPCA that the dog came at him and grabbed his glove, causing a small puncture. And Brian Reid stated that on an occasion when the dog was tethered in the yard with a rope, it came running to the end of the rope, barking and baring its teeth.

Both incidents occurred two or three months ago, but neither were reported at the time.

SPCA manager Tim Kenna is trying to sort out the facts.

"If this dog has bitten, where is the proof?" he told council. "The owner could be charged for not taking adequate precautions . . . How does the dog behave? If I have five or six complaints, I'll review it."

After the Feb. 9 incident, Neil was sent a letter from the village indicating that the bylaw says the dog must be leashed and muzzled when walked and contained on the property the rest of the time.

"So if the owner is letting the dog run loose, and I get continued complaints, I'll look and see if I have grounds," he said.

Banning a breed would be very difficult, Kenna added.

"My biggest issue is determining if the dog is a pitbull-cross or not," he said.

Such a bylaw in Surrey caused arguments by owners that their dog was not a pitbull cross, and Kenna asked, how does one prove it?

"We can only make an educated guess. If someone wanted to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, I suppose they could do DNA testing, if the municipality wants to pay for it."

Bottom line is, if a dog attacks "and I can prove the owner knows the dog was aggressive, and if they don't take proper precautions, I will apply for a destruction order," he said.

Asked how successful that has been in the past, Kenna said most times, the dog is surrendered to the SPCA for euthanasia.

"And then the Crown won't go to court because they'll say it's been dealt with."

Kenna said it's difficult to assess a dog on a chain because the animal will act differently than when it isn't chained up.

If Fruitvale bans pitbulls, the SPCA won't adopt them out to anyone living in Fruitvale.
However, the dog in question was adopted by the couple when they lived in Trail, he said.

"We don't have control over where people go once they've adopted an animal," he said.

Councillor Doug Swanson asked if the SPCA were the "only people to deal with an aggressive dog."

McKenna explained he has 18 years experience dealing with aggressive dogs and that the SPCA has "trap poles to handle a dog without injury and we've been trained."

Kenna plans to talk to the police and interview everyone involved in the incident, and will bring a report back to council.

Grieve is upset with the way the SPCA handled the investigation so far and feels it is in a conflict of interest since the society adopted the dog out to Neil in the first place.

But Kenna is confident he can produce an unbiased assessment.

"Once adopted out, I don't make a difference. We get to know most dogs in the area, especially those whose owners don't adhere to the bylaws . . . And if I have a concern (of bias), we'll work through it."

Grieve maintains that while any breed of dog will bite, a pitbull is known to be particularly vicious.

"There was an incident recently where a woman left her baby in a swing for 30 seconds to answer the phone and when she came back, the dog had killed the baby," he said. "My dog would bite and could even draw blood, but you could fight it off."

In the meantime, Grieve won't be walking his dog in the area of the pitbull's home anytime soon.

"I used to walk there every night and never dreamed anything like that would happen. My dog was so scared, it defecated all over me."

Grieve plans to question the village's SPCA contract.

"I want to know what we get for the $14,400 we pay to the SPCA."

The village is waiting for the SPCA's report on the issue before taking further action.