Through the ages, dogs have been referred to as “man’s best friend.”

In 2005, Ontario passed Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) when it made amendments to the Dog Owners’ Liability Act. The Act contains specific provisions which ban residents of Ontario from owning, breeding, transferring, abandoning, allowing to stray, importing or training to fight a “pit bull”.

Under the Act, if a dog is found to be a breed that is identified as a banned breed, or ‘pit bull’ – which includes American Staffordshire Terriers, American Pit Bull Terrier or Staffordshire Bull Terriers – the dog would either be transferred out of the province, euthanized or turned over to a research facility, even if the dog has no prior offences. The legislation goes so far as to claim that any dog who has similar characteristics to any of the banned breeds, (e.g. short fur, a large blocky head, or muscular build) is also at risk of being identified as a ‘pit bull’ which could include Labradors, Boxers, Bulldogs and the list continues. Therefore, these dogs could also end up being a target of the breed specific components of the Act.

A number of studies conducted over the past 20 years on Breed Specific Legislation have demonstrated that breed bans are not effective in reducing overall dog bites or dog related incidents, nor have they been successful in ensuring the promise of public safety.

No Ontario-wide dog bite statistics are kept and there are very few scientific studies available on the frequency of dog bites by breed. However, one study titled “Animal Control Measures and their relationship to the reported incidence of dog bites in urban Canadian municipalities” concluded that there was no evidence that municipalities with BSL had fewer dog bites.

In 2014 and 2015, the city of Toronto reported the highest number of dog bites this century, even though a provincial breed ban has been in effect in Ontario for well over a decade.

The city of Ottawa states clearly on their website that they will not enforce the provincial ban on “pit bulls”, as they refuse to force the tax payers of the City to bear the brunt of an ineffective, virtually unenforceable law.

The 2005 amendments to the Dog Owners’ Liability Act have failed in their promise to provide safer communities to the people of this province, and have not achieved the goal of ensuring public safety. Yet, thousands of innocent family pets have been and continue to be needlessly euthanized, or transferred out of the province due to their appearance, not their behavior. This has left thousands of Ontario families destroyed.