City’s new dog bylaw will be ‘balanced’, Plante says

Public consultation includes an online survey available now and public meetings

Mayor Valérie Plante says public consultations will help the city come up with an animal-control bylaw that protects Montrealers without targeting pit bull-type dogs.

“We saw that with the previous administration when they decided to do the bylaw (in 2016), a lot of people felt left out and not consulted,” Plante told the Montreal Gazette Friday after the city announced it will consult the public in February and March.

“There’s a lot of research and studies that demonstrated the way the administration decided to move forward with a specific bylaw against pit bulls was not a good way to go.”

That’s why the city will also consult experts before it comes up with a “balanced” new bylaw later this year, Plante said.

The consultation effort, which includes an online survey and public meetings, comes two months after Plante suspended parts of a controversial pit-bull bylaw introduced by former mayor Denis Coderre.

Her administration eliminated rules that barred new pit bull-type dogs and imposed strict rules on those already owned by Montrealers.

At the time, the city said it would rework the bylaw in the second half of 2018, after consultations. Montrealers can fill in the city’s online survey until March 4.

They can also take part in eight public meetings that will take place on Saturday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, March 3.

We saw that with the previous administration when they decided to do the bylaw (in 2016), a lot of people felt left out and not consulted.

The meetings will take place in Plateau-Mont-Royal, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Sud-Ouest and St-Laurent boroughs.

Coderre zeroed in on pit bulltype dogs after a Montreal woman was mauled to death in her backyard by a neighbour’s dog.

A coroner determined the dog that killed Christiane Vadnais was 87.5-per-cent American Staffordshire Terrier, considered a pit bull-type dog under the provisions now removed from Montreal’s bylaw.

Ensemble Montréal, the opposition party at city hall, said Plante is endangering Montrealers by rescinding the Coderre-era rules.

PIT BULLS

Leader Lionel Perez said the city’s own data suggests the number of dog bites related to pit bulls accounted for 40 per cent of the total bites reported in 2016 and 2017, even though they represent just three per cent of canines in the city.

But Plante said the city kept in the bylaw all provisions regarding dangerous dogs.

“We just took out the ones specific to pit bulls because studies show it creates a false sense of security — people think that the only dangerous dogs are pit bulls and the other dogs are fine, which is not a good approach.”

Plante said the city considers “that any kind of dog can bite, though we understand that bigger dogs, including pit bulls but also Rottweilers or huskies, can often have a stronger bite.”