Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre has vowed to push ahead with his plan to ban pit bulls in the city despite a judge’s decision Wednesday to suspend parts of the new animal control bylaw.
“I have a lot of respect for the rule of law and Judge (Louis) Gouin, but I think he erred in the facts of the law, and we will appeal his decision,” Coderre said.
On Wednesday, Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis Gouin granted the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ request for a suspension of elements of the bylaw pertaining to “pit bull-type dogs” adopted by city council last week. In his ruling, Gouin said the bylaw’s definition of “pit bull-type dogs” was so vast and vague even city lawyers hired to argue the case were unable to identify what type of dogs were being targeted. Gouin wrote that the bylaw would discriminate against non-dangerous dogs, and that forcing non-aggressive animals to be constantly muzzled risked doing more harm than good. He added it appeared elements of the bylaw had been written in haste and suggested the city rewrite parts of it.
Thursday morning, Coderre published a letter online and tweeted it out, with two simple words: People First!
“We will not yield to threats nor interest groups. We reconfirm our intention to ban pit bull type dogs from Montreal, as has already been done by some of our boroughs and as in Ontario, in France and in hundreds of cities around the world. We will not compromise when it comes to the safety of our fellow Montrealers,” Coderre wrote in the lengthy letter.
“My top priority will always be people and their safety. That is why we adopted a bylaw concerning dangerous dogs and one in particular, the pit bull.”
In interviews Thursday, Coderre conceded there are elements of the bylaw that may require fine-tuning, particularly in terms of the city’s references to pit-bull mixed breeds. But to stop the ban would trivialize the death of Christianne Vadnais, who was killed by a dog in June, he said. The breed of dog responsible in that attack has not been confirmed.
The city needs a preventive bylaw that can ward off attacks before they occur, and statistics provided by the Montreal police force indicate pit bull-type dogs are responsible for an inordinate percentage of bites, Coderre said.
“Talk to the surgeons about the impact of pit-bull bites,” he said. “My duty is to make sure people are safe and feel safe. I spoke to a lot of people who were afraid to go in parks, and I felt we have to do more.”
The bylaw, which came into effect Monday before it was suspended, outlaws the acquisition of pit bull-type dogs in Montreal, and forces current owners to muzzle their dogs outdoors and purchase special permits to keep them. Failure to comply could result in euthanization of the pets.
On Thursday, opposition party Projet Montréal announced it had launched a petition calling on Anie Samson to resign her post as the city’s executive committee member responsible for public security, on the grounds she had botched the pit-bull file. The party, which criticized Coderre’s decision to appeal the suspension, said the petition had collected 1,000 signatures in a day.
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