Momentum is growing for an end to Ontario’s 2005 pit bull ban with the NDP and Green party questioning the legislation passed by a previous Liberal government after a Toronto man was mauled by two such dogs, prompting police to fire 16 bullets into them.

Targeting the handful of breeds popularly referred to as pit bulls does not help deal with dangerous dogs in general, the heads of both parties said Monday as Premier Doug Ford’s government rethinks the Dog Owner’s Liability Act.

“We’ve said all along that it didn’t really do what it was supposed to do and it was not an effective way of dealing with dangerous dogs,” New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath told reporters.

The latest pushback against the ban is coming from Progressive Conservative MPPs David Piccini and Rick Nicholls, who have been collaborating on a private members’ bill to repeal the ban after Piccini began circulating a petition over the summer.

“We’re looking at all options with the Dog Owner’s Liability Act and the breed-specific language,” said Piccini (Northumberland—Peterborough South), suggesting stricter penalties for negligent dog owners, animal abuse and neglect should be considered, along with more public education on how to approach dogs.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the prohibition on pit bulls “discriminates against certain dog breeds in the face of scientific evidence.”

“Breed-specific laws are simply not as effective at reducing the incidence of bites and they result in the unnecessary euthanasia of hundreds of dogs and puppies,” he added in a statement.

Ontario’s ban requires owners to muzzle, leash and sterilize their pit bulls and outlawed the breeding and import of them in a bid to eradicate them from the province. Owners can face fines of up to $10,000 or six months in jail for not complying.

The law followed several highly publicized pit bull attacks in Toronto. A 2014 investigation by the Star found pit bulls were more likely than any other breed to bite people and pets in the city during the three years ending in 2004. In that year, there were 984 licensed pit bulls and 168 bites reported. But by 2013 there were only 501 pit bulls registered in Toronto and just 13 bites. The city no longer keeps bite statistics by breed.

But experts maintain the ban remains misguided.

“Individuals of any breed can be aggressive,” said Angela Fernandez, an associate law professor at the University of Toronto who teaches a course on animals and the law.

“Breed-specific bans misrepresent the problem of dangerous dogs by making it seem like it is the dog’s membership in a breed or subspecies that explains why things have gone wrong when they do. However, it is the history of that individual dog that is more likely the root cause,” she added.

“Using breed as a way to decide which dogs should be either killed or sent out of the province is grossly indiscriminate and unfair to all the other dogs who can be put into that category who have never done anything to anyone.”

The ban also ignores the bite risk of other dogs, particularly big ones more likely to cause serious damage, if they feel threatened or become agitated.

“We do have a higher potential for damage with some of these larger dogs…that we don’t worry about in terms of our breed-specific legislation,” Lee Niel, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph’s veterinary college, said on TVO’s the Agenda in 2016.

“So there is a discrepancy there that doesn’t really make sense,” added Niel, who was not available Monday.

Critics point to a 2017 move by the City of Toronto to crack down on owners of all dangerous dogs as a better solution than a breed-specific ban.

That bylaw requires owners to muzzle their animals, attached a coloured tag to collars and post warning signs on their properties if the dog has severely bitten or attacked a person or another pet. Any dog that has twice bitten in a nonsevere manner is also subject to the same restrictions.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the province has more important issues to deal with at this time, such as turmoil in the education system and contract talks with teacher unions.

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“A day after narrowly avoiding a (school) strike that would have thrown families into chaos, the Ford government wants to talk about lifting the pit bull ban? It’s a thinly-veiled attempt to change the channel and further evidence of how the premier’s priorities are grossly out of whack with Ontarians,” Fraser said.

When the ban was being debated 14 years ago, then-Toronto police chief Julian Fantino supported it on the basis of safety for officers and the public, saying pit bulls were the favourite choice of outlaw motorcycle gangs, drug dealers and street gangsters to guide marijuana grow ops and hideouts.

“These dogs are used a weapons,” he told a legislative committee. “Our officers are becoming equally as cognizant of dangerous dogs as they are of guns when the arrive on scenes of their calls.”