Will voters be thinking about pit-bull ban on Nov. 5?
Leading up to municipal elections on Nov. 5, we look at influential factors in the Montreal race. Today: animal issues
From a pit bull-type ban to an illfated attempt to pull calèche horses from the streets of Old Montreal to a contentious “urban rodeo” in the Old Port, animal-related issues dominated Montreal headlines to an unprecedented degree over the last four years.
The question now is whether those issues will come back to bite incumbent mayor Denis Coderre and his party in the coming elections.
Opposition councillors contend they will, because they forced potential voters who normally pay little attention to the humdrum of daily municipal affairs to take an interest in how their city is being governed, and many didn’t like what they saw.
“With its new animal rights bylaw, the city needlessly enraged pet owners and effectively painted itself into a corner,” said councillor Marvin Rotrand of the Coalition Montréal party.
“Now a lot of people know who the mayor is, but for all the wrong reasons,” said Sterling Downey, animal-rights critic for opposition party Projet Montréal. “They jumped the gun and did everything fast, and created a bylaw that doesn’t make sense and doesn’t hold water in court.”
Many of the disgruntled are young, Downey noted, and anger over animal issues could incite them to vote, or influence others already intending to come out on election day, Nov. 5.
Anie Samson, the city’s executive committee member responsible for animals and public security, did not respond to an interview request from the Montreal Gazette. Samson and Coderre have said their actions reflect the will of most residents, many of whom fear pit bulls, and were put into effect in the best interests of public security and animal welfare. The issue has been hijacked in part by a vocal animal-rights movement, they said.
“We chose people’s safety,” Coderre said when council voted in the new animal-control bylaw in September 2016, noting that the law allows people who already own pit bulls to keep their dogs.
Coderre raised the idea of a ban 10 days after Christiane Vadnais, 55, was killed by her neighbour’s dog in June 2016. A poll taken two weeks after the attack found 70 per cent favoured a ban. Support was bolstered by a police study that determined pit bull-type dogs were responsible for 38 per cent of the 362 serious dog bites reported on Montreal territory during a 21-month period.
In August 2016, the city issued its proposed bylaw, which included a ban on acquiring new pit bull-type dogs. Owners of pit bull-type dogs were allowed to keep them, but under strict new regulations that require short leashes and muzzles. No one with a criminal record would be allowed to keep one.
The proposals spurred widespread objections from animalrights groups who said numerous jurisdictions have abandoned breed-specific legislation because it didn’t work, and the law would force the death of innocent dogs.
The bylaw came into effect on Oct. 3, 2016, but was promptly suspended when a Quebec Superior Court judge sided with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ call for a temporary injunction, ruling the law was too vague in its definition of “pit bull-type dogs,” and caused unfair prejudice to certain dogs.
That decision was overturned in Quebec Appeals Court two months later, which ruled the court must err on the side of assuming bylaws were created to preserve public safety. It also ruled no pit bull-type dogs could be euthanized unless considered a danger, pending legal proceedings.
The SPCA has pledged to fight the bylaw in court.
“We feel the new bylaw really shows the Coderre administration in total improvisation mode, with an ill-thought-out strategy,” said Sophie Gaillard, lawyer for the Montreal SPCA’s investigations department. “It definitely hurt them in the public’s eyes. What we’ve seen from them is just this stubbornness, no matter what experts say.”
Dog laws are not the only animalbased legislation the Coderre administration has been accused of rushing.
In response to incidents of horses collapsing in the street or being hit by a car, the Coderre administration declared in late May 2016, at the start of tourist season, that it would impose a one-year moratorium on horse-drawn carriages, in order to study the issue. Applauded by animal-rights groups, the move was blasted by calèche drivers who said it left them no time to prepare and would cost them their livelihoods.
A Quebec Superior Court judge immediately granted a temporary injunction of the city motion, and the administration subsequently dropped the moratorium.
In August 2016, the city adopted new rules limiting the 24 horses’ shifts to nine hours, ordering vet inspections twice annually and requiring horses be taken off the road if temperatures reached 28 C or higher. Animal-rights groups still want them banned, but Coderre argues calèches are part of Montreal’s signature and heritage, and can stay as long as the horses’ welfare is guaranteed.
Montreal also hosted an “urban rodeo” in the Old Port of Montreal as part of its 375th anniversary celebrations.
Six hundred veterinarians and veterinary technicians signed a letter asking the city to scrap the idea on the basis the event is cruel to animals, backed up by animal activists. The Coderre administration responded that rodeos are popular with many in Quebec (the event drew 35,000 spectators over four days; the St-Tite rodeo 180 kilometres north of Montreal draws 600,000 spectators a year) and animal safety was monitored, but he later said the city would not repeat the rodeo in 2018.
Projet Montréal
The party is against breed-specific legislation. It supports “a bylaw that will truly enhance public safety and reduce the number of bites, regardless of the breed or appearance of the dog.”
The party platform also calls for:
replacing calèche rides with activities free of cruelty to animals; prohibiting any promotional or commercial event that causes physical or psychological suffering to an animal; increasing the number of dog runs so more areas are served; increasing the number of animals residents are allowed to have in their homes to promote adoptions and avoid killing of animals; providing support for animal sterilization, particularly for disadvantaged or homeless clients; prohibiting the opening of new pet stores and require existing pet stores to offer animals for adoption.
Équipe Denis Coderre
The party’s platform makes no mention of animal issues.
The party created the city’s new animal control bylaw in September 2016, which instituted a ban on bringing new “pit bull-type” dogs into the city, and imposes regulations on owners of current dogs, including leashes no longer than 1.5 metres and muzzles at all times outdoors, as well as a $150 registration fee compared with $25 for a “regular” dog.