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| Muzzled and leashed pit bull |
New Westminster City has 'no plans' to reinstate
vicious dog bylaw despite pit bull inflicting serious injuries to woman and man in their home
Bill Tieleman’s 24
Hours Vancouver / The
Tyee column
Tuesday August 4,
2015
By Bill Tieleman
"These
breeds [pit bulls] should be regulated in the same way in which other dangerous
species, such as leopards, are regulated."
-
Annals of
Surgery medical journal, April 2011
Despite
a horrific pit bull attack
that left a New Westminster woman with "life changing" facial
injuries and a man also bitten, the city has "no plans" to reinstate
a bylaw restricting vicious dog breeds that it repealed
in 2013.
The
New Westminster attack July 23 sent the woman to hospital with serious injuries
while the dog was seized and is being held by New Westminster Animal Control
Services.
Two
children asleep in the apartment were unharmed.
"No
matter how good they [pit bulls] can be, they can change on a dime. They are
like walking sharks," Lori Hilton, a neighbour of the New Westminster
attack victims told
CBC.
The
attack is the latest of several pit bull and pit bull mix incidents causing
serious injuries in B.C. and resulting in the deaths of several smaller dogs.
'Vocal
minority' fuel debate
In
June, a nine-year-old Penticton girl was the victim of an unprovoked pit bull attack,
requiring five stitches on her arm, which she used to protect herself when the
dog lunged for her face.
But
New Westminster Animal Control Services supervisor James Doan said after a
bylaw review the city removed the "breed specific" rules on pit
bulls. Those regulations had demanded muzzles, leashes and other restrictions
on several breeds.
"Any
dog can have an incident," Doan told The Tyee on Friday.
And
New Westminster communications coordinator Ashleigh Young told The Tyee that:
"There are no plans to amend the bylaw at this time."
While
New Westminster repealed its restrictions, Burnaby continues to define pit bull
breeds as "vicious dogs" that must be muzzled in public and in 2013
increased licensing fees for them and fines for incidents.
That's
despite strong efforts
of pit bull advocates to have the bylaw pulled.
Burnaby
Councillor Pietro Calendino rejected pit bull owner arguments.
"I'll
call it the vocal minority that's been addressing us, writing to us, again, as
I said, passionate about their pit bull dog," Calendino said. "But we
have a very silent majority out there that is in support of what the council is
doing and they want us to not change our mind about... restraining vicious dogs
in the public."
Ontario,
which banned pit bulls altogether in 2005, has reported significant drops
in dog bite attacks since then, while Winnipeg has prohibited the breed since
1990.
Just
looking at recent news reports on pit bull attacks shows why a ban is
necessary.
This
year alone in the United States, 14 people have already been killed
in pit bull attacks -- including seven children and infants.
In
2014
there were 27 people killed by pit bull attacks and 25 in 2013,
according to non-profit DogsBite.org, which tracks dog attacks across the U.S.
Pit bull breeds accounted for 64 per cent of all dog attack deaths in 2014 and
78 per cent in 2013.
The
Tyee covered
an unprovoked pit bull attack on a six-year-old Vancouver girl in Crab Park in
January that required 10 stitches to her leg and another four to her face.
In
Calgary in May there were five dog attacks
in five days connected to pit bulls, with one teenage girl sent to hospital.
"That
specific breed has caused a lot of damage in the last five days," Calgary
Animal Services Director Ryan Jestin told media.
And
small dogs are often killed by pit bull attacks. In Nanaimo in
June,
a woman's 13-year-old Maltese-poodle cross died after a pit bull crushed its
throat while the owner walked her dog on Hecate Street.
More
cities regulate pit bulls
Mia
Johnson knows all too well how a sudden, unprovoked pit bull attack
can take the life of a cherished dog.
Johnson
and her daughter Laurel lost their service dog Yuri, a miniature pinscher, in
Vancouver last November -- and no charges
were laid against the owner of the pit bull that disemboweled Yuri.
Johnson
has strong opinions about how New Westminster was convinced to drop its vicious
dog rules by a group called HugABull
Advocacy and Rescue Society.
"HugABull
pressured New Westminster City Council to drop the pit bull ban by calling it
'antiquated legislation' and telling people the 'trend is towards repealing BSL [breed
specific legislation].' Both are entirely untrue," Johnson said in an
email interview with The Tyee.
"In
the last three years, an additional 160 cities in the
United States adopted BSL policies to protect their citizens from pit bulls.
This was despite the fact that Best Friends Animal Society, the largest
American pit bull lobby group who earned
$66.6 million dollars in 2014 relentlessly campaigned against BSL during
this time."
"Pit
bull advocacy groups have a strong economic interest in not banning pit bulls,
and people in cities like New Westminster suffer the consequences,"
Johnson concluded.
Pit
bull supporters continually argue that the owner, not the breed, is the
problem.
Unfortunately,
that's just not what the evidence shows, nor does it take into account that pit
bulls have been bred for centuries as fighting dogs.
And
many of the child fatalities are the result of the family pit bull suddenly
savaging a youngster in their own home.
In
April, 10-week old Brayden Wilson was killed by a pit bull when his father
briefly stepped outside to turn on a lawn sprinkler.
When
he returned, his pit bull was attacking Brayden in his bouncing seat. The
father tried to pull the dog off the infant and was then joined by Brayden's
mother, who was bitten twice.
The
father finally managed to pull the dog outside and shot it but Brayden was
pronounced dead at hospital.
Brayden's
grandmother Willetta Tate said the family owned the pit bull for eight years,
during which it had been around
two other children in the household, eight and 11 years old.
"It's
just unexplainable. You just don't get it when you've had the dog so long, I
don't know what could have happened. I don't know," Tate said. "Those
kids, they sleep with him and everything."
Time
to ban the breed
Sadly,
fatal pit bull attacks often come from dogs owned by family or friends of the
victims, including at least seven
of the 14 deadly U.S. pit bull attacks so far this year.
And
pit bulls' powerful jaws make a pit bull bite deadly, while their refusal to
let their victims go ensures maximum harm.
"Bites
from pit bulls inflict much more damage -- multiple deep bites and ripping of
flesh -- and are unlike any other domestic animal I've encountered,"
Tucson plastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Demas testified
in a Colorado court.
"Their
bites are devastating -- close to what a wildcat or shark would do."
Owners
are rarely charged when their pit bulls kill or injure, and not all dogs
involved in attacks on humans and other animals are put down.
There
were no charges in either the Vancouver or Nanaimo cases this year.
But
even if there are charges, they come after an attack -- the only way to prevent
those fatalities and injuries is with a ban.
That's
why New Westminster City Council should reconsider its 2013 decision to repeal
their vicious dog bylaw and put greater emphasis on the protection of citizens
than the right to own a pit bull.
And
it's why British Columbia should simply ban pit bulls.
.
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