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I am forwarding the attached information for your perusal. It is with regards to what is happening at this very minute in the Canada Safety Council.
Emile Therien, President of The Canada Safety Council, has sent a letter to Canada's Health Minister, Allan Rock, to request that a study based on past dog bite incidents be implemented. As several newscasts and newspaper articles have suggested, Emile Therien's intent is to ban breeds of dogs that are considered "dangerous". This is what European law has dictated, and it is European law that Mr. Therien is citing.
Emile Therien's letter is as follows:
July 25, 2000: Dog Bite Data Base Needed
Honourable Allan Rock, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Health
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON, Canada
K1A 0A6
I refer you to the article Dog Bites, copy enclosed, from the No. 3 1999 issue of CSC's publication, SAFETY CANADA. The article generated much interest.
Without question dog bites constitute a major public health and safety problem in this country and citizens everywhere should be aware.
There is growing concern in many countries about dangerous dogs on city streets and other public places. A national news program in the United States recently reported on the growing number of attack dogs in that country and the significant problem they pose both to public officials and citizens. Following a national outcry against dangerous dogs after a six year-old Hamburg boy was bitten to death by a Pitbull in his schoolyard in June, Germany's states have all tightened laws governing the keeping of animals (this was the third dog attack deaths in six months in that country). Hamburg, a city-state, has enacted the toughest laws, outlawing three of the most dangerous breeds. There is mounting pressure on the German federal government to enact a nationwide law. All this in a country so famously fond of dogs! A national public opinion poll revealed 74 percent of Germans favored a ban on breeding or keeping dangerous dogs.
Laws in other European countries show a similar concern with dangerous dogs. In Denmark three breeds - the Pitbull, Staffordshire and Dogo Argentino - have been illegal since 1991. Tourists are not allowed to bring the animals into the country, and even a dachshund can be declared illegal if it is proven it has been trained to be aggressive. Sweden has similarly tough laws. In Britain, the import and breeding of dangerous dogs is illegal. A law that took effect in January in France requires dangerous dogs to be sterilized - a move aimed at eliminating Pitbulls from France within 10 years. Britain has had a similar law since 1991. Italy is planning to introduce a similar law this year.
The laws passed in these European countries recognize the public's concerns with aggressive dogs - which pose a major threat to public safety.
We are not in a position to comment of the number of attack dogs in Canada. However, it would appear there is a fairly large number across the country. Based on the European experience, a reliable database must be established detailing the number of those dogs, the laws in place, if any, affecting their breeding and ownership, and the number of persons killed or injured by them. Only then can it be determined if more or new laws are, in fact, required to control the ownership and breeding of these dogs.
We would like to meet with you and your officials to discuss this matter further. For this purpose, I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Emile-J. Therien, President
The report that Emile Therien refers Mr. Rock to states, in part, the following:
Breeds that bite:
In the Netherlands, the breeds responsible for the most bites were Rottweiler (20 per cent), and Golden and Labrador Retriever (15 per cent). CHIRPP ranked the most common breeds causing a bite injury as German Shepherds, Cocker Spaniels, Rottweilers and Golden Retrievers.
Golden and Labrador Retrievers have a reputation for being friendly and good-natured. The high number of bites is because they are very common. The Dutch survey found that for Rottweilers and Bull Terriers, the chances of biting are seven and six times higher respectively than for other pedigree breeds.
Please take a moment please check out the Canada Safety Council’s web site at www.safety-council.org
Click on “Dog Bites” and you will see a letter, dated July 25, 2000, to Allan Rock (Canada’s Health Minister) requesting a meeting to discuss this issue. If you click on “Dog Bites” in the first sentence of the letter it will show you a report from 1999 where they are citing findings from Europe and the Netherlands. Go to the bottom of that article and click on CHIRPP NEWS (Issue 11, July 1997) and it will give you more dog bite statistics.
If you go to ‘Contact Us’ on the side bar of the home page, it will show you the Canada Safety Council address, phone, fax, and all the extensions of the people involved with this organization.
Each and everyone of us MUST act on this now! The ADRK, a German Rottweiler club, didn’t believe it would happen to them and when they realized it was going to, it was too late.
If they ban one or two particular breeds now it will set a precedent and open the door for them to ban others, as other breeds become more popular.
It may very well affect us ALL in the near future!
Several of us have also put together a petition, with which we plan to collect as many signatures as possible. As this is a nation wide threat, it is not feasible to collect signatures from individuals in person. What we are asking is that you read the following paragraph that is at the head of the petition and reply to this e-mail giving your consent to have your name added to the petition. We will not attempt to sign anyone's name, what we will do is print each person's name, address, and phone number and then attach a copy of the e-mail in which consent to be added to the petition was given.
The paragraph at the top of the petition is as follows:
We, the undersigned, are opposed to the proposal submitted by Emile Therien to Allan Rock with regards to a study detailing dog bite incidents that may lead to the banning of particular breeds. Our major concern with this issue is that it is not the breed of dog, but the actions of some irresponsible and uneducated breeders/owners that increase the likelihood of these types of incidents.
If you would like your name added to the petition, please reply to nexusmktg@sympatico.ca with your full name, address, and phone number. We will then add your information to the petition.
Also, I have collected most of the above e-mail addresses from a couple of different publications. As it is a HUGE task to input the hundreds of e-mail addresses, and I wanted to get this started as soon as possible, I have not yet finished inputting all of the e-mail addresses. Please do not hesitate to pass this on to as many people as you see fit, and I also apologize if, in future, you receive a duplicate of this message - I will do my best to ensure that that does not happen.
You may also be interested in checking out the following articles from the Ottawa Citizen:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/letters/000801/4510062.html
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/letters/000729/4530305.html
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/000728/4524636.html
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/letters/000729/4530303.html
There were also articles in the National Post and the St. Catharines Standard
Your support in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Laura J. Richardson
nexusmktg@sympatico.ca
Click here to read editorial #32-b, titled, "Politics and our K-9's," and read our opinion on this subject.
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