Monday, April 17, 2006

If breed bans won't work, what will?

Canadian vets and humane societies oppose breed bans
Francis Henville

Many Canadian municipalities already have breed-specific dog bans in place. While this legislation is popular in a number of communities, what many people don’t know is that the National Companion Animal Coalition (NCAC) is strongly opposed to these bans.

The NCAC represents many Canadian professionals:

the Canadian Kennel Club
the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies
the Canadian Veterinary Medicical Association
the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council

In March 2004, the NCAC released a statement explaining its position on breed-specific bans. The greatest fault it finds with such bans is that it is difficult to objectively determine the breed of a dog. The NCAC points out that “many municipalities do not have access to qualified persons that could accurately perform breed identification.” The NCAC believes that dogs become dangerous for a variety of reasons. Poor training, lack of exercise and mistreatment are responsible in some cases. In other cases, a certain dog may not fit an owner’s lifestyle. Of course, the NCAC also recognizes that some dogs are dangerous because they are specifically bred to be aggressive.

According to the NCAC, rather than imposing breed-specific bans, municipalities should impose hefty fines on owners of dogs that bite. They should also enforce confinement laws to keep dogs under control, and offer incentives to encourage dog owners to be responsible.

To answer more questions on the issue of breed-specific bans, we have some answers from a Canadian Federation of Humane Societies representative, which you can explore through text or audio.

2 Comments:

Blogger Conners said...

What I would give to be in the court room on May 16, 2006. Hoefully it won't take too many months for the fight and wonder if we will still have to fight bylaws in our own municipalities to have them changed too.
Waiting is killing me!!!

6:05 PM  
Blogger Tiredawg said...

I have a pit bull. ALL kidding aside, if you are an asshole, your dog will be an asshole. Pit bulls are THE loyalist dogs around. I Ruv My Domino. BTW, he was bread for fighting, then I rescued him. 7 yaears later still my best friend.

6:29 AM  

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