'Incidents' prompt Côte St. Luc to 'regulate' aggressive dog breeds

During city council's January public meeting last week, the announcement for an impending new bylaw "concerning dogs" was among a series of notices tabled with measures to control graffiti and air guns.

In Hampstead, town council has enacted its own bylaw requiring dogs to be muzzled when they have been aggressively involved in attack incidents, although specific breeds are not targeted.

In an interview, mayor Anthony Housefather said Côte St. Luc will be referring to certain specific breeds in its bylaw. "We will be targeting breeds," he said, "because we believe that there have been sufficient incidents in communities surrounding us that we've read about to warrant a concern. "There are municipalities across North America that have pro-actively adopted this bylaw and we feel that there are certain breeds that really need to be regulated. And we also noted that it would be unfair to simply ban those breeds. "Some people already have dogs of that breed or people may really desire to own one," he added. "But we don't feel it's unfair on public property to say that those types of dogs need to be muzzled. And the question is what breeds those will be and council will determine that."

Last summer, a group of dog owners who are regular users of the City of Côte St. Luc's dog run asked council to take measures that would ban Pit Bulls from the run. Raising the issue during a meeting of council in July, Barry Klar said he was speaking on behalf of a delegation of dog owners who frequented the Mackle Road dog run. "We the undersigned are in favour of creating a ban in which Pit Bulls will be prohibited from frequenting the dog park located on Mackle Road in Côte St. Luc," he said, reading the preamble from a petition gathered by the dog owners.

The group's definition of a Pit Bull included Pit Bulls, Terriers, Staffordshires, Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, American Pit Bull Terriers, or "a dog that has an appearance and physical characteristics that are substantially similar to any of the aforementioned dogs."

Klar said a pit bull ban was necessary at the Côte St. Luc dog run because "we have many small dogs" and "many small children who frequent the dog run and it's a concern for all of us and we're very fearful of a tragedy."

Two years ago, the province of Ontario made it illegal to import or transport Pit Bulls through its territory. While Pit Bulls owned prior to that are still allowed, they must be muzzled and tethered on a leash no longer than 1.8 metres. Since 1990, the City of Winnipeg, Man. has had a by-law banning Pit Bulls.