Should  the  ban  on  pit  bulls  In  Ontario  still  be  in  effect?

 This question is a contentious one because many dog owners want the ban rescinded and many non-dog owners have the opposite view. Before I go into my own views on this subject, let me give you some facts about pit bulls.

The term Pit Bull is used in reference to three breeds of dogs. Namely, the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, as well as any crosses between these three dogs.

Some studies that have been performed on the number of human deaths caused by dog bite trauma in the United States have surveyed news media stories for reports of dog bite-related fatalities. Their findings were that dog attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs.

The US Humane Society estimates that there are over 79.2 million dogs owned in the United States. Each year, 9.7 million people are bitten by dogs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC) published in 2000 a study on dog bite-related fatalities that covered the years 1979-1998. The study found reports of 327 people killed by all types of dogs over the 20-year period. Using newspaper articles, the CDC was able to obtain breed ‘identifications’ for 238 of the 327 cases of fatal dog attacks; of which the pit bull terrier or mixes thereof were reportedly involved in 76 cases.

One 5-year (2001–2005) review of dog attack victims admitted to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia determined that pit bull terriers were implicated in more than half of the dog bites. Of the 551 children treated, the breeds of the dogs were identified in 269 cases. Of these dog bites by dogs, as many as 269 treated, 137 (50.9%) were attacked by pit bulls.

 One review of the medical literature found that pit bulls and pit bull cross-breeds were involved in between 42 and 45% of dog attacks. Fatalities were most often reported in children, with 70% of victims being under the age of 10.

 From January 14^th to July 11^th of this year, the following incidents involving deaths by pit bulls occurred in the United States alone.

 January 14—Jace Valdez —16 months—killed by his grandparents pit bull.

March 4    —Diane Jansen—59 years—she was bitten on her legs by a pit bull

                      while  delivering mail and died three days later.

March 25  —Kylar Johnson—4 years—killed by a neighbour’s pit bull.        

April 9      —James Hurst—92 years—killed by a neighbour’s pit bull.

May 2       —Clifford Wright—72 years—killed by his son’s pit bull.

May 8       —Jazilyn Mesa—15 months—killed by her father’s dog.

May 12     —Maryann Hanula—73 years—killed by her neighbor’s pit bull

May 17     —Makayla Darnell—3 days—killed by her family’s pit bull.

June 14     —Tyzhel Williams—months—killed by mother’s roommate’s pit pull

July 11     —Ronnel Brown—years—killed by his own pit bull.

There is no doubt in my mind that every one of those owners of the pit bulls really believed that their dogs were ordinary cuddly and friendly pets that wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone a human being. They were wrong of course and their decision to keep their pit bulls as pets resulted in the deaths themselves, members of their families and their neighbours.

Several studies have determined that pit bull owners and owners of other "vicious" or "high risk" breeds (most commonly identified as Akita,. Chow C how, Doberman Pincsher, Pit Bull, Rotweller, and  Wolf-mix  are more likely to have criminal convictions and are more likely to display antisocial behaviors. A 2006 study comparing owner's of "vicious" dogs to owners of "low risk" dogs determined that the former group had nearly 10 times as many criminal convictions. A 2009 and a follow-up 2012 study generally supported these conclusions.

Is it possible to raise a pit bull from birth to the day it dies of old age in a home that offers affection to the dog and never have an incident of the dog attacking a human being or other dog during its lifetime? That is not an easy question to answer.

It is difficult to determine just how much a dog's genetics determine its behaviour, just like it's hard to know how much of a person's personality is nature and how much is nurture. It's true that some breeds were bred to perform tasks that require more aggression than others. Pit Bulls, for example, were bred to fight dogs and other animals for sport. Some people theorize that pit bulls' genetics make them more prone to violence than other dogs, and pit bulls have in fact been involved in more fatal attacks than any other dog over the past 20 years. But breeds that are not bred for aggression, including Golden Retrievers, Cocker Spaniels, and Yorkshire Terriers, have been involved in fatal attacks as well.

A study performed by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the CDC, and the Humane Society of the United States, analyzed dog bite statistics from the last 20 years and found that the statistics do not show that any breeds are inherently more dangerous than others. The study showed that the most popular large breed dogs at any one time were consistently on the list of breeds that bit people and killed them in the process. There were a high number of fatal bites from Dobermans in the 1970s, for example, because Dobermans were very popular at that time and there were more Dobermans around, and because Dobermans' size makes their bites more dangerous. The number of fatal bites from Pit Bulls rose in the 1980s for the same reason, and the number of bites from Rottweillers in the 1990s. The study also noted that there are no reliable statistics for non-fatal dog bites, so there is no way to know how often smaller breeds are biting.

Since 1982, pit bull and close mixes account for: 45% of all U.S. and Canadian human dog-attack fatalities, a total of 207; 51% of all dog-attack disfigurements of children, 850; and 66% of all dog-attack disfigurements of adults, more than 700. Media databases show that there has never been a time when pit bulls did not account for more than half of all fatal dog attacks over any given 10-year interval, even though it bulls (by all their alias names) never amounted to even 1% of dogs in the U.S. and Canada until about 30 years ago.

Studies have supported what many veterinarians have believed for years and that is that nearly any dog can be aggressive or nonaggressive, depending on his training and environment and its treatment by its owners. Owners have to play a large part in making sure that their pet is safe around other people. There are several steps q dog owner can take to help ensure that their dogs aren't dangerous to other dogs and human beings.

Dog-sales statistics show that pit bulls were never that popular in America and they were never bred for anything but fighting. All dogs bite, but few do serious damage on a statistically consistent basis. Some PBs may lick you; others may maul you. Nobody can predict their behaviour. The fact is, even responsible owners cannot prevent pit bull attacks. Most killer pit bulls were raised in loving homes and seemed sweet; that is until they attacked someone.

First of all, dog owners should restrain their dogs from lunging at people. Unrestrained dogs cause about 82 percent of all fatal bites. Keeping a dog on a strong leash whenever it is in in public is a big first step toward preventing bites. Further, dog owners should tell strangers not to interact with their dogs and that is because  strangers and a strange environment may startle their dogs. If a dog owner leaves its large dog outside in the back yard, the back yards needs needs to be enclosed with a six- to eight-foot fence, depending on your dog's size. It is much cheaper to pay for the installation of such a fence than end of losing one’s home and going bankrupt after being sued for damages and losing the case because the dog owner’s dog killed a neighbor.  

When I lived in Etobikoke, a borough of Toronto in the mid 1970s, I saw a lot of unleashed dogs roaming the area without anyone in charge of them. I spoke to the counselor representing us in the city council and asked him to bring in a motion to make it an offence to own a dog and then permit it to roam the streets without being leashed. The twerp responded by saying to me; “We have enough laws. I am not going to bring about the addition of another law.” That was a very big mistake saying that to me. He got me very angry. It’s not nice to get me angry. When election time came up, I was still a private investigator so on my own, I investigated the man and I uncovered information that if elected he would only stay in office for half a term because he let it be known to certain people that he was going to run for office in the upcoming provincial election. Everywhere he went to speak, I was there accusing him of planning to desert us in mid-term. Needless to say, he not only didn’t get elected to the city council, he actually had the poorest showing for votes in all of the boroughs in Toronto.

Sometime in the winter of 2005, a woman, after exiting her apartment in Toronto was horribly bitten to death by two pit bulls roaming in the apartment building’s hallway. Before anyone could pull the dogs off of her, she died of her ghastly injuries. The owners of the dogs were neighbours of hers down the hall.

This made me angry again. I wrote the premier of Ontario and told him that the best thing for Ontario is to ban all pit bulls from being in the province. He wrote me back and said that he was going to forward my letter to the attorney general of the province.

The Ontario pit bull ban was among several amendments to the Dog Owners Liability Act passed through the provincial legislature by the Liberal Party majority on March 1, 2005. Other amendments doubled to $10,000 (Canadian funds) the maximum penalty for allowing a dangerous dog to escape control, and eased search-and-seizure warrant requirements for police and animal control officers who impound dangerous dogs.

The pit bull ban passed five days after three pit bulls rampaged through an Ottawa residential neighborhood, injuring three people, including two-year-old Jayden Clairoux.

Attorney general Michael Bryant announced on March 31, 2005 that the province of Ontario, Canada, on August 29, 2005 would implement the farthest reaching ban in North America on the sale or acquisition of pit bull terriers.

Bans on the sale or possession of pit bulls and other reputed fighting breeds have been in effect in the Netherlands, France, Britain, and Germany for as long as 20 years, as well as in China and several other Asian nations. Ordinances of similar intent have been adopted by many individual U.S. and Canadian cities, but the Ontario ban is the first in either the U.S. or Canada to extend beyond the limits of a single city or county.

The Ontario legislation is modeled after the city statutes enacted earlier by Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor, and by Winnipeg, Manitoba, where the last licensed pit bull died in 2004; fourteen years after the breed ban took effect. Winnipeg animal services chief Tim Dack affirmed to Canadian Press that pit bull attacks in Winnipeg have dropped from a peak of 29 in 1989 to zero in recent years.

Attorney General Bryant told Greg Bonnell of the Canadian Press. “The experience in Winnipeg and Kitchener was that you began to see a drop in pit bull bites, even after the first couple of years. We should immediately have better protection of the public.” I am in total agreement with that statement. 

Bans work. In 1989, Denver passed the strongest and oldest PB ban still in effect. The result is that Denver is one of few major U.S. cities that hasn’t had a dog-attack fatality in 20 years. Ontario adopted its law prohibiting PB possession in 2005 (with a provision grandfathering responsibly owned dogs). Ontario shelters now kill fewer PBs serving a population of 13 million people than does Detroit, with no ban, and a human population of 1.2 million. Lift the ban and Ontario will enable tragic, preventable human and animal carnage, while condemning thousands of dumped dogs to death every year.

Pit bull advocates are passionate and verbally aggressive. I realize that owners of such dogs find this ban unfair since they believe that their pit bulls are safe but just because their dogs appear safe and harmless to them is no real guarantee that their dogs won’t attack someone later. How will they feel about their pit bull if their dog kills their baby? How will they feel if their dog kills a neighbour and they are then sued for several million dollars and they end up bankrupt? What is the point of suing someone who has a large dog that bites people if the dog owner has no money in the first place? Since all dogs are capable of attacking people, there should be a regulation for anyone wanting to get a dog over 25 pounds to have dog insurance of one million dollars. 

What is particularly disheartening about the “canine correctness” one constantly encounters in this debate is that so many influential people and organizations — including some veterinarians, kennel clubs and the SPCA — lend their credibility to the claim that no breed may be said to be more dangerous than any other.

ShareRemoveFlag for spamBlock User don’t agree with that. Although other dogs do bite people, pit bulls are very hard to pull off of victim’s being bitten. This is what makes them extremely dangerous.

One pit bull owner held up a petition attesting to the good character of pit bulls in general signed by 4,000 veterinarians as proof of their worthiness. Unfortunately veterinarians cannot always be counted on to be disinterested observers; they have to be on good terms with all their clients and cannot afford to offend those who lobby for the pit bull owners.

Perhaps if the lobbyists could publicize a petition from 4,000 emergency-room doctors insisting that pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other breed, those of us that approve of the Ontario ban on pit bulls might change our minds.

It is beyond my understanding why anyone would choose to have a pit bull as a pet. There are so many other kinds of dogs that are less risky to have as a pet and can be just as loving to its owner and the owner’s family.

It is my firm belief that banning pit bulls and their mixes will substantially reduce the mortality rates related to dog bites.