Stay of execution for dogs

Reverse onus has definitely been struck down! But it`s repeated in this article that the onus is on the dog owner?Who`s not doing their homework? Check out the Sarnia Observer.

Stay of execution for dogs;
Purported pit bulls will be assessed by local vet
CATHY DOBSON
Local News
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

A mother and her three puppies at the centre of a growing protest overprovincial pit bull legislation have been granted a stay-of-execution. City solicitor Brian Knott confirmed that Sarnia's legal departmentplanned to ask the local animal shelter to euthanize the dogs today.

But a request from the owner's lawyer to allow more time for a vet to assess their breed prompted the city to grant at least another week.

"Had we not heard from anyone, they would have been euthanized Wednesday," Knott said. "But we're providing the owners more time togive us more information."

The dogs were seized by Sarnia animal control officers June 6.

They belong to Brian Edwards Jr. and his girlfriend, Cassie Bates, who say they were told to hand them over or be charged because the dogs are not licensed and the female is not spayed.

Under Ontario's pit bull law, owners of any dogs judged to be pitbulls must register their pets, muzzle them in public and spay or neuter them.

Brian Edwards Sr., who has taken up his son's cause, said Brian Jr.doesn't believe his dogs are pitbulls and that's why they weren't registered or fixed.

His family has retained a Toronto lawyer who volunteered to take on the case without payment.

"We need him to get the dogs back," Edwards Sr. said. "This law isjust unbelievable. It's too vague and too unfair."

The law does not clearly define a pit bull and places the onus on the dog owner to prove it's not, he said.

"We hope a vet will look at our dogs and confirm what we already know."

The Edwards family is organizing rallies for Friday, starting at noon, to run simultaneously in front of city hall, MPP Caroline Di Cocco's office and the local humane society, where the dogs are being held.

"I'm an old hippy and I believe in protest," said Edwards Sr.

Since the city seized the dogs and he spoke to the media, Edwards Sr.says he's received at least 100 supportive calls from Ontario and Michigan.

He wants to hold a march at Queen's Park this summer and attract thousands of animal lovers.

Meanwhile, the manager of the local animal shelter says she and her staff are caught in the middle.

"We are simply housing these dogs at the request of the city," TamiHolmes said. "But we are getting blamed for all of this and being judged the executioners."

Her office received a death threat from someone upset that the dogs would be euthanized and regular humane society supporters are angry, Holmes said.

"It's just infuriating because we have nothing to do with it. We are neutral," she said.

The city is also caught in the middle, Knott said.

"This is provincial legislation we're attempting to enforce."