Seized dogs face execution and Dog census underway in city

This article in the Sarnia Observer shows how easily your dogs can be forced away from you with no just cause such as bites or attacks. If the authorities say it's a Pit bull, than no matter what, it's a Pit bull unless you have papers to show differently. That's impossible to do with mutts.

Seized dogs face execution
JACK POIRIER Local News -
Thursday, June 07, 2007


Cassie Bates and Brian Edwards show photos of the dogs that animal control officers seized Wednesday. The dogs, three seven-week-old puppies and their mother, are thought to be pit bulls. They are scheduled to be euthanized. next Wednesday. The couple would not give up their seven-year-old dog Petey, shown.

A Sarnia couple says the city has placed their dogs on death row. Brian Edwards Jr. and his girlfriend, Cassie Bates, said animal control officers showed up at their Indian Road residence Wednesday morning demanding they hand over their pets.

"They said if I didn't give them the dogs I'd be charged," he said.

Edwards said animal control seized a trio of seven-week-old puppies and their mother, a three-year-old mixed breed named Rowen. Under the province's "pit bull law," owners must register their dogs and keep them muzzled while in public. Pit bulls that were not registered or owned by an Ontario resident as of Aug. 29, 2005, are considered illegal.

Edwards said his dog isn't a pit bull, adding the father was a golden retriever that was the spitting image of Old Yeller.

"Still, they say our dogs are going to be destroyed," Edwards said.

His girlfriend said animal control also wanted her to give up her dog, a seven-year-old named Petey, named after the canine of Little Rascals fame. She refused. The remaining four dogs are being housed at the Humane Society where they are to be euthanized.

"How can they destroy puppies? They're just seven weeks old," Bates said.

Both she and Edwards contend the dogs are not pure bred pit bull terriers. They have contacted lawyer David Stoesser, who successfully challenged the pit bull law last year.

"The law is frustratingly unclear," Stoesser said.

The problem is the law doesn't deem what constitutes a pit bull, he said. It also places the onus on the dog owner to prove otherwise, before the animal is euthanized.

"A dog can be killed, basically on the opinion of the pound operator," Stoesser said.

That was the case Wednesday morning, when Stoesser said he lost his first canine client, who was captured by animal control officers last month on a porch in the heart of the city. The seizure was shown on the front page of The Observer.

"I lost Brutus to death row today," he said.

Stoesser said he managed to get a couple of stays of execution but time was working against the dog owner. City clerk Brian Knott said dog owners who have animals suspected of being pit bulls seized by animal control have but four working days to prove otherwise before the animal is killed. Asked how city staff determines what is and isn't a pit bull, Knott said they look at information based on the dog's characteristics. He admitted it isn't a perfect system, but it's provincial law.

"All we're doing is trying to comply with the legislation as best we can," he said.

Another story in the Sarnia Observer.

'Dog census' underway in city
Local News
- Thursday, June 07, 2007

SARNIA'S "DOG CENSUS" is underway. A city staff person will be conducting the door-to-door survey to find out if a dog is located at the residence and whether a licence has been purchased. The employee will be wearing municipal identification and driving a city-owned vehicle.