Pit bull Ban: Back it with cash Queen's Park left cities on hook for cost of enforcement

In the Peterbourough Examiner it shows how the Ontario goverment made a law, yet wouldn't help to reinforse it and why each municipality does things differently.

Why is this becoming an issue now doesn't make sense as we had to fight the London's proposed bylaw for trying to stick outrages fees and fines to the responsible, registered bullie owners with the full cost and even more so.

Some of the Ontario cities and towns were not so harsh on their citizens, but London was a city that decided to take it's own fight against the bullie owners past what the law was enforcing...only Londoners fought back.

PIT BULL BAN: Back it with cash Queen’s Park left cities on hook for cost of enforcement
By Examiner Staff Editorial - Friday, September 22, 2006

Maybe the cities and towns that are now stuck with the cost of Ontario’s pit bull ban should have seen it coming.

When Attorney General Michael Bryant announced the ban last year, a news release stated that “The McGuinty government is making our communities safer.”

It didn’t say the McGuinty government would be paying for the privilege.

A province-wide ban would be more efficient than a patchwork of hundreds of different bylaws that Ontario municipalities would have passed on their own, Bryant said at the time.

However, there was no evidence cities were about to jump on the ban bandwagon. Peterborough city council had discussed some form of pit bull control in the past but had always backed off.

Part of the reason was concern about whether municipalities had the authority to ban one type of dog, but there were also questions about the cost of enforcement.

The authority issue was taken care of a year ago when the Liberal government amended the Dog Owners’ Liability Act.

Those who already owned pit bulls must keep them leashed and muzzled in public.

No new pit bulls can be bred here or brought into the province.

The question of who pays was also taken care of, indirectly.

The province didn’t make any money available, which means local authorities pay.

In Peterborough, as in most cities, that means local taxpayers.

Brad Algar, general manager of the Peterborough Humane Society, says it costs an average $250 for every stray pit bull (the legislation lumps several types of dogs and mixed breed under that label) that is caught, held for the mandatory 10 days and then destroyed.

In the first year, 10 dogs were scooped up at a total cost of $2,500.

While that may not seem like a lot of money, the Humane Society runs on a very tight budget.

It is contracted by the city to pick up and deal with stray dogs and cats, run the animal shelter and handle cruelty to animal cases.

It relies heavily on volunteers but still struggles to stay within its $205,000 annual operating budget.

The financial crunch is made worse by another new law requiring that all dog bite cases be prosecuted by the Crown attorney’s office, rather than city prosecutors.

A backlog in the criminal courts is delaying those cases.

That means more time for the Humane Society to house and feed the dogs involved, and more costs.

Algar, who wants the province to accept its responsibility, is not asking for a lot of new money.

The society is attempting to enforce Bryant’s ban with only one extra animal control officer.

If the province were really serious about getting these “ticking time bombs” out of communities it would be paying for extra dog catchers, at least until the pit bull population starts to decrease significantly.

But when the City of Toronto made that case, the province declined to bite.

Last spring Toronto city councillors turned down a request from its animal services department for nearly $530,000 to hire 10 new staff to police the ban.

When the city turned to Queen’s Park, the response was that enforcement costs would be low because people are generally law-abiding.

Run that logic out to its conclusion and cities wouldn’t need police forces.

MPP Jeff Leal, a Liberal, says he will press the province to see that local animal enforcement agencies get the funding they need.

If not, the pit bull ban will be one more case of the white knights at Queen’s Park riding to the rescue of local municipalities, then leaving a bill when they ride away.