Just a few months ago, Renaud Begin worried that Montreal, the city he lives in, was trying to take his dog away from him.
The dog, Stella, looks like a pit bull, and that made her subject to a 2016 bylaw restricting pit bull ownership in the city. Because of the regulation, Mr. Begin got a new permit, gave Stella a microchip and had to muzzle her when she was outside.
He said that he complied but nevertheless got a letter from the city in August notifying him that he was in danger of losing Stella if he did not file the proper paperwork. “I didn’t sleep well,” Mr. Begin said in a phone interview on Friday. “I almost didn’t eat for a few days because I was stressed.”
Now, Mr. Begin, a 20-year-old university student, can breathe more easily. The provisions of the bylaw targeting pit bulls were dropped this week.
The provisions were first approved by the Montreal City Council in September 2016, a few months after a resident, Christiane Vadnais, 55, was fatally mauled by a neighbor’s dog, which the police called a pit bull at the time, in her own backyard.
Continue reading the main storyThe measure banned new adoptions of pit-bull-type dogs and imposed new restrictions and higher fees on existing owners.
The bylaw was immediately challenged, including in a lawsuit filed by the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The suit resulted in injunctions on some key provisions, including one that said dogs could be taken from noncompliant owners and euthanized. And in November, Valérie Plante, who had promised to drop the parts of the bylaw targeting specific breeds, won the mayoral election.
The regulations targeting pit bulls were suspended on Wednesday.
“It was unfair,” Alanna Devine, the director of animal advocacy for the Montreal S.P.C.A., said of the old bylaw in a phone interview. “It punished responsible dog owners and well-behaved dogs simply because of the way the dogs look.”
She pointed out that “pit bull” is a hazy term that could include a range of mixes and does not refer to any particular breed. (American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers are often considered pit bulls.)
People tend to characterize pit bulls by how they look — muscular, with blocky heads and square jaws — and associate them with personality traits including dominance and aggression.
Pit bulls are also associated with dog fighting; historically, many were bred for that purpose. And pit bulls have attacked humans. Just this month, there were reports of a toddler being mauled at a pet adoption event in Texas and a woman who was apparently killed by her own two pit bulls in Virginia.
After Ms. Vadnais was killed in Montreal in 2016, Denis Coderre, the mayor at the time, said in a statement that the new bylaw provisions were about “the safety and sense of security of Montrealers.”
“I was deeply shocked at the recent events involving dog attacks,” he added. “As a responsible administration, it was our duty to examine this issue closely and make the appropriate decisions.”
Critics of the bylaw said it was unfair, costly and confusing. Mr. Begin said the $150 permit and the muzzle were too expensive, especially for people who had more than one pit bull. And he noticed that after the provisions were put into effect, people seemed more afraid of Stella than they had been before.
“She’s like a big baby,” he said. “She doesn’t have any aggression. People were scared of her for no reason. Just because of stupid politics.” (He added that because of the pit bull ban, he campaigned for Mayor Plante’s party, Projet Montréal, before the November election.)
Ms. Devine of the S.P.C.A. said that a dog’s personality depends far more on its upbringing than its breed. It is possible, she added, that “because of the demonization attributed to dogs that look a certain way, people are going to be more likely to neglect or be irresponsible for these dogs.”
She said that rather than single out individual breeds or types, policies could promote education about how to care for dogs or introduce better regulations on breeding, sales and neglectful practices like leaving animals chained up for too long.
The city administration of Montreal under Mayor Plante hopes to pass a new bylaw on animal control next year.
Continue reading the main story