LETTER

Pit bulls in Aylmer

 

Is there any word yet on the breed of the dog in the Luskville attack last month that you reported on?  Given the recent political clashes over whether to ban pit bulls, I think it’s pertinent to discuss breeds in dog attacks.  To keep people informed, and to get away from the dogma (no pun) peddled by so many lobby groups.
    
Something I found beyond depressing was an article in La Presse retracting what they had written, that a pit bull had attacked some children in Montreal North.  Apparently it wasn’t a pit bull.  Their justification for the retraction was that the dog was “37% to 74% Bulldog, 20% to 36% Boston Terrier, up to 20% American Staffordshire Terrier, and 10% to 20% Boxer”.
    
This is either very poor reporting or horribly biased, or both.  Every one of those breeds except boxers are ancestors  of pit bulls.
    
So that dog was 80% to 90% pit bull!  
    
On a related note, during the inflatable attractions festival on Principale a few weeks ago a woman brought a pit bull right up by the giant dinosaur that kids could enter into, and just sat it among all of the three-year-olds, no muzzle or anything.  Just to show how friendly her cuddly pit bull was!  And, of course, to show that the laws shouldn’t apply to such a precious animal.  Regardless of how uncomfortable she made all of the parents feel.  
    
Plus, there’s not much to do, outside of calling the police?  It would have been justified.  But would they respond?

Thanks again for the good work.  Here’s to Bulletins for years to come.

Ian Barrette
Aylmer