Wag the Dog

PC candidate for Brant, Dan McCreary, has answered our questionnaire.  Here is his reply:

1.  If the amended Dog Owners' Liability Act (2005) came up today for a free rather than a whipped vote as happened in 2005, would you vote in favour of banning breeds as an effective way to protect people from dog bites?  Please explain.

I was on city council when Brantford brought in its own municipal ban and I voted in favour of it.  At the time, the information we had indicated that it was the best course of action.

Since then, I've learned a lot more about this from people who are knowledgeable and realize that we were on the wrong track.  If a vote came up today on the same issue, I would vote against it because the facts don't support banning a breed of dog as being an effective way to reduce dog bites and attacks, especially since the breeds currently banned in Ontario are not significantly represented in bite statistics and are in fact quite rare.

2. Please tell our readers why you think the 'pit bull' ban enacted by the McGuinty government has or has not been successful in protecting the public from dog bites.

People are still being attacked by dogs in Ontario, and are still being bitten by the pit bull types, if we can believe news reports.  If anything, it seems that dog bite incidents have increased since the ban.In Ontario we have had two people killed by dogs since the ban went into effect and neither dog was of the pit bull type.  We have also had some serious maulings and again, pit bull type dogs were not involved.

In my view, the ban has not been at all successful in protecting the public from dog bites and attacks in Ontario.  What's more, it has punished non-offending citizens who happen to own a particular type of dog when they have done nothing wrong.  I'm against that because it is unfair and goes against our Canadian values.

 3. Would you be willing, if elected,  to work to rescind Ontario's amended Dog Owners' Liability Act (2005) and replace it with an existing, easily implemented  Canadian system that has been effective in the control of negligent pet owners, that is supported by all responsible pet owners and that once established is fully funded by dog and cat owners rather than through general revenue taxation?  Please briefly explain your response.

I would be very interested in learning about an effective way to control the bad dog owners who are the actual problem.  I would like to find out more about the system you describe.

4. How important to you is the issue of amending Ontario's animal cruelty legislation, the Ontario SPCA Act, using a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is 'not at all important' and 10 is 'extremely important')?

8 out of 10.  Abuse and neglect of animals are the prime causes of dangerous dogs and have also been shown to correlate with antisocial behaviour in other areas.  As I said, I've learned a lot about this issue over the past 3 years.

5.  Is there anything you'd like to add?

Keep up the good work!

Thank you Dan, for your forthright response.  I for one appreciate your willingness to admit that you made a mistake in the past but are now looking into the facts instead of listening to media hype.  Everyone can make mistakes.  It takes to guts to admit that publicly.  It's too bad the Attorney General didn't have what it takes to do the same thing before we got into this abysmal situation in Ontario.