On October 3, a Canadian judge suspended a law put in place to prevent Montreal citizens from adopting or buying pit bulls. The biggest issue with this law is that it wrongly discriminates against a specific breed of dog: the pit bull. The law was first introduced in response to an attack in which a 55 year old woman was killed. The city believes the ban of pit bulls is a reasonable response to numerous attacks that have occurred; however, not many people are seeing it that way. Pit bulls are not actually dangerous animals despite the stigma surrounding them. Mayor Denis Coderre says they respect animal lives, but put human safety first and will do anything to protect their citizens. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who have challenged the law, claim that Coderre and the judge, Anie Samson, did not consider the situation carefully and are pointing fingers at pit bulls rather than looking at how the dog was trained or the human involvement. The law is currently suspended indefinitely. The law also fails to give any specificity and bans “pit bull-like” dogs.
Fortunately, the current suspension allows shelters, who would’ve had to kill off hundreds of dogs, to work to find homes for the dogs before the law is potentially put back into effect. These pit bulls are not dangerous objects to own like this law makes them seem. Owning an animal is more like a mutual relationship between human and canine. Animals arguably have feelings and needs just as much as humans. Banning pit bulls is not like banning a certain type of food, chemical or object. Instead, this ban is hurtful to those who understand the true nature of pit bulls as well as to the pit bulls themselves.
Pit bulls are actually very intelligent, loyal and friendly when they are given a good environment to live in. One reason we should be skeptical of believing that pit bulls are dangerous is by looking at history. Throughout the years, many dogs have been deemed dangerous including Rottweilers, German shepherds and Dobermans. None of these dogs are faced with stigma anymore. Each of these dogs were seen as vicious attack dogs due to the media and poor ownership. For example, many Dobermans were trained to attack people by drug dealers in order to protect them. German shepherds gained a “vicious” appearance due to the stigma around them being attack dogs for K9 units in police forces. None of these dogs are considered vicious or harmful today. Instead we have focused our fear around pit bulls.
Dogs tend to behave according to their environment and training. Poorly trained dogs in bad environments are going to be more vicious and likely to attack for their safety as well as their owner’s safety; however, many dogs that are with loving families and in safe environments are happy and playful. Yes, it is possible for a dog to still attack someone when they’ve been trained and loved properly; however, these situations tend to occur because the dog felt the need to protect either itself or the owner. There are also cases where a dog has scratched or bit a family member due to playing, but these situations are not defining for the animal. We tend to put human safety first and then think about the other creatures and things that are a part of our daily life. It isn’t fair to treat animals as objects that we can just ban and get rid of without consequence.
