MONTREAL—The Quebec government is turning tail on a pledge to ban pit bulls in the province, citing the dismal results and difficulties enforcing similar legislation in Ontario.

Premier Philippe Couillard told reporters Wednesday that his government had decided to proceed with the consensual parts of the legislation and abandon the controversial dog-breed ban, which was opposed by the SPCA and the province’s veterinarians, among others.

Quebec Public Safety Minister Martin Coiteux, in a moment of candour not often seen in the political realm, said there was no scientific consensus to support the pit bull ban.

“There is not even scientific corroboration that indicates to us this will be feasible to go so far as to designate and ban a particular breed of dog,” said Coiteux, who is also Quebec’s municipal affairs minister.

“I’ve always believed that when we make laws, they have to be based on objective facts,” he told reporters in Quebec City.

Coiteux said that the government is moving ahead with the bulk of the legislation that has the support of all parties, particularly parts that set up a severe province-wide regime for errant dog owners and aggressive dogs, whatever their breed.

The law had proposed creating a category of “potentially dangerous dogs” including pit bulls, American pit bull terriers, Staffordshire terriers and Rottweilers. Dogs which fell into this category could be subject to an ownership ban if the provincial government deemed it necessary.

The legislation was prompted by the June 8, 2016 death of Christine Vadnais, a Montreal woman who was attacked and killed by a dog when she returned home from work. The dog belonged to a neighbour and was able to slip through a hole in its owner’s fence to get at Vadnais.

It was initially identified in the media as a pit bull.

But later investigation revealed that the dog had been registered as a boxer. A DNA test completed after the dog was destroyed was unable to conclusively identify its breed.

Lise Vadnais, the sister of the deceased woman, has campaigned in favour of the ban. Last month, she urged the provincial government to pass the law in the name of public safety.

“There are more than 350 breeds of dog. Why must anyone absolutely have a dog that strikes fear into their neighbours?” Vadnais said, adding that she was a dog owner herself. “We love dogs, but that a dog should never take precedence over the security of human life.”

However, the coroner’s report into Vadnais’ death, which was released last fall, urged the government to avoid implementing a breed-specific ban on dog ownership in Quebec.

“The breed-specific ban entails useless costs and has never proven to be efficient in the prevention of dog bites or attacks,” Dr. Ethan Lictblau wrote.

Coiteux attributed his change of heart to the testimony he heard before the recent parliamentary committee studying the bill, which was modelled on the 2005 pit bull ban enacted in Ontario.

Among those who testified was Christine Hartig, a policy and bylaw officer for the city of Ottawa. She said that there were 450 dog bites each year in the city, but only 2 per cent of the cases involved “pit bull-type dogs.”

She said that Ontario’s legislation has had no verifiable impact 13 years after it was adopted.

“Dog bites are still occurring and there doesn’t seem to have been a decrease,” Hartig said.

Alanna Devine, a lawyer and director of animal advocacy with the Montreal SPCA, said she was relieved that the government came to the same conclusion as many of the experts working in the area of animal welfare and behaviour. She did, however, note that about half of Quebec’s municipalities have bylaws that target specific breeds of dogs.

“The Ontario experience ... for sure had a huge impact on the government’s decision, along with the scientific evidence that one way or another it wasn’t going to do anything to attain their goal,” she said.

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She said she hoped the province would now be able to dispense with the notion that banning a specific type of dog could increase public safety. Instead, her organization is pushing for strong preventative measures the improve animal treatment and welfare and get tough on negligent or abusive owners.

“If that’s all taken seriously at a provincial level we hopefully will see fewer dog bites in the province,” Devine said.

Coiteux said he hopes to pass the revised bill into law before the legislature breaks for the summer.

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