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The head of Montreal’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hopes to persuade Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre that his “knee-jerk” decision to ban pit bulls this fall will not work to reduce dangerous dog attacks.

“If we are trying to find a way to reduce the number of animal bites in a community by starting with how the animal may look, we are starting down the wrong path,” said SPCA executive director Nicholas Gilman.

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“It is a rabbit hole that doesn’t lead to effective results. Instead, let’s focus on how animals become aggressive in the first place and work from there.”

Coderre announced Saturday morning that the city plans to amend its animal control bylaws to ban acquisition of new pit bulls in Montreal — and perhaps other as yet unspecified breeds — and to require sterilization of existing pit bulls and the wearing of muzzles whenever they are in public.

“Following events of recent weeks and the filing of the coroner’s report Friday morning, I have decided to go forward with a ban on pit bulls, and other dangerous breeds of dogs, by September,” the mayor said at a news conference at city hall.