City staff say they will push city council to enhance punishments for pet owners whose dogs are involved in biting incidents and raise the cost of licensing for breeds considered dangerous after a sudden spike in dog attacks in the past five days.
The call for greater public safety measures comes after a new batch of incidents. Following two bite attacks by pit pulls over the weekend — resulting in two dogs killed and seven charges laid against the owners — a Great Pyrenees attacked two children Monday resulting in five charges in a separate incident.
On Wednesday morning, a 14-year-old girl was bit on both legs by a pit bull-type dog before the owner and dog fled the scene. An investigation is also underway after two unleashed dogs — a German Shepherd cross and Labrador-type cross — attacked a woman at a bus stop on Wednesday.
“I’m very concerned about pit bulls and Rottweilers,” said Ryan Jestin, director of Animal and Bylaw Services. “There’s a history, there’s a reason why places like the city of Toronto have banned them outright. Is that a way we want to go in Calgary? I’m not so sure, but quite clearly we have to take additional steps to make sure owners understand the ramifications of owning a breed that may potentially harm somebody.”
There have been 23 reports of dog attacks so far in 2015. This follows approximately 400 in 2013 and 500 in 2014, although ABS operations manager Alvin Murray noted there’s usually a spike in spring and summer.
Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi said he opposed a breed-specific ban.
“It’s been shown over and over again those don’t work and have a lot of unintended consequences,” he said. “And I’m told by many people across the country that Calgary’s current responsible pet bylaw is a really good example of how to manage the issue without breed-specific bylaws. There may well be other things we need to do. We may need to look at specific penalties, but breed-specific bylaws have been shown not to work.”
Jestin said he was concerned with the “viciousness” of this week’s attacks, adding all occurred out in the street rather than off-leash dog parks. He said ABS will work with city councillors to revamp the city’s Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw over the next year.
“The evidence clearly here is about pit bulls. That specific breed has caused real damage over the last five days,” Jestin said. “If you want to have a pit bull at home you can, but I suspect it’s going to cost you much more for licensing, it’s going to cost you much more in the event there’s an attack such as we’ve seen in the last few days.”
Former city councillor John Schmal was a main proponent of a breed ban during the late 1980s. He said pit bulls “belong out in the farm somewhere.”
“They’re very dangerous. We’ve seen enough kids being bitten by pit bulls and even though families think they’re a nice animal and they’re part of the family, all of a sudden you find that they bit one of their own kids. I don’t think they belong here in our city,” Schmal said. “Our bylaw department is pretty loosey-goosey in controlling dogs in our city.”
But Barbara Walmer, head of behaviour at the Calgary Humane Society, said dog attacks are not a breed-specific problem.
“We need to educate people on training and socialization and basically responsible pet ownership,” she said. “If dogs are not social, we need to make sure we’re using preventive measures such as muzzles and leashes to prevent those interactions from happening.”
-With files from Jason Markusoff
City looks to boost fines for pit bull bites after slew of attacks
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Originally Posted by killramos
