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Under his proposal, once a dog is trained and certified, it must wear a coloured bandana in public: red for aggressive dogs, yellow for those requiring caution and green for those people can approach and play with. Magliocca said owners would have discretion over which bandana their dog wears, but if they choose an inappropriate one or none at all and their dog bites someone, they’d face heavy fines of thousands of dollars.

He said this proposal would prevent attacks by certain dogs, such as pit bulls.

“People now, instead of buying like a pellet gun, they’re buying like a machine gun. It’s the same thing,” Magliocca said. “We just can’t let anybody have one of these pit bulls or terriers. It’s like putting machine guns in everybody’s hands.”

Photo by Gavin Young / Calgary Herald

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said he would support the motion as long as it remains non-breed specific and muzzling is only required when dogs are off-leash.

“It doesn’t matter what the breed is. If they’re not properly trained, or they’re trained to be aggressive, then they will be aggressive regardless of which breed,” Chabot said. “People may not come forward with complaints about it because it may seem minor in nature. If it’s a small animal, it’s only because they do not have the ability to invoke more damage, it’s not because they didn’t have the desire to. So what’s the difference?”

Many jurisdictions have banned the ownership and breeding of pit bulls, including Ontario, Winnipeg and Denver.