Ontario introduces pit bull ban bill

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

TORONTO–Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant on October
26, 2004 introduced an amendment to the Dog Owners’ Liability Act
which would ban breeding, selling, and importing pit bull terriers
into the province.
The amendment also doubles to $10,000 the top fine and
provides a possible sentence of up to six months in jail for
possession of “any dangerous dog who bites, attacks, or otherwise
poses a menace to public safety.”
Explained Bryant, “Those who currently own pit bulls will be
able to keep their dogs. However, these dogs will have to be
muzzled and on leashes while in public, and spayed or neutered.
Municipalities can also add further restrictions.”
Kitchener banned pit bulls in 1997. “Since our ban,
Kitchener has sen a dramatic decline in the number of pit bull
attacks from 18 to about one per year,” mayor Carl Zehr told
Canadian Press.

Waterloo and Windor have also banned pit bulls, and a ban is
pending in London, Ontario.
“There are actually two proposed city bylaws,” explained
London Free Press reporter Mary Jane Egan. “One would ban pit bulls,
Rottweilers, Presa Canarios, and Akitas,” allowing those already
in the city to remain by permit. “The other bylaw would require
muzzling if a dog charges someone or is perceived as menacing.”
London Animal Care & Control records from September 2001 to
September 2004 show the following ratios of licensed dogs to reported
bites:

Breed # Lic. Bites Ratio

Pit bull 840 143 5.9
Rottweiler 533 37 14.4
Husky 628 28 22.4
German shepherd 2,449 117 20.9
Jack Russell 1,131 27 41.9
Labrador 3,514 47 74.8

The proportions of each breed relative to the others appear
to be approximately normal for U.S. and Canadian cities with annual
snow cover. Northern breeds, including huskies, Akitas,
Malamutes, and Samoyeds, are less common in warmer climates, while
hounds and beagles are kept more often.
Retired Chico State University physics professor L. Robert
Plumb in January 1999 compiled similar data for all dogs in the U.S.,
based on estimated total population of each breed, not just those
who are licensed. Plumb expressed his findings in terms of estimated
numbers of pet dogs per bite serious enough to require hospital
treatment:

Breed Ratio

Pit bull 16
German shepherd 156
Spaniel (all types) 174
Doberman 296
Terriers (small) 433

Plumb did not calculate the ratios for Rottweilers, northern
breeds, or Labradors.
Plumb, a cofounder of the Paradise Animal Welfare Society,
circa 1993-1994 applied a math model for rabbit population growth or
reduction developed by Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa (1170-1240) to dog
and cat overpopulation. The same model had helped vaccination
pioneer Louis Pasteur to establish that 70% of a population at risk
would have to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of any infectious
disease.
Recognizing that sterilization is in effect surgical
“vaccination” against pregnancy, Plumb demonstrated by comparing
animal shelter intakes to veterinary data that dog and cat
populations would grow until 70% of the dogs or cats in any given
location were sterilized, at which point they would stabilize and
then decline rapidly as the ratio of sterile to fecund animals
increased.