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Many arrive from shelters in southern California where dogs with known behavioural problems must be handed over to rescue groups on request if they would otherwise be put down.

Advocates of a crackdown on the breed argue Canada is freely admitting potentially vicious dogs; rescue organizations say we already have a surplus of native-born pit bulls needing homes, their lot made only more desperate by importing others.

“It certainly is a problem that is manifesting in many different ways,” said Kathy Powelson of the Paws for Hope Animal Foundation. “These dogs are from L.A. and they’re brought over unassessed, they’re put into families that don’t know what they’re getting themselves into, and they’re not provided with any support.”

Rescue groups behind the unusual import, on the other hand, say Canada is providing a home to dogs that are unfairly maligned, not innately dangerous and would otherwise be killed in the U.S.

You save a dog from the U.S., and kill a dog in Canada.

“It’s life and death for them,” says Cindy Smith of the group Wings of Rescue, based in Woodland Hills, Calif.

Smith says her organization flies about 40 dogs from shelters in the Los Angeles area to Canada every 90 days or so, 75% of them pit bulls. The plane either lands in Calgary directly or in Montana, where a crew from Wings’ Alberta partner, BARC’s Rescue, picks them up, she said.

So long as the paperwork is done, showing the dogs have received the appropriate vaccinations and been checked for heart worm, there’s never a problem clearing Customs, said Smith.