At a Glance
- Case Type
- Regulatory Action
- Jurisdiction
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Date
- 2016-09-27
- Status
- Decided
Montreal's City Council voted in late September 2016 to prohibit the adoption or acquisition of pit bulls and pit-bull-type dogs within city limits, a direct legislative response to the fatal mauling of Christiane Vadnais, 55, in the backyard of her Pointe-aux-Trembles home in June of that year [1][2]. As NPR reported on Sept. 30, 2016, the ban took effect Oct. 3, placing Montreal alongside a growing list of cities and countries that have enacted breed-specific legislation [1]. The new ban forced residents who already owned pit bulls to obtain a permit to keep their pets by year's end, and pit bulls considered illegally owned faced euthanasia.
Vadnais died after being attacked by her neighbor's dog, which had escaped from its owner's house and entered her backyard through a hole in the fence. Police stated shortly after Vadnais died that the dog's owner, Franklin Junior Frontal, could face charges of criminal negligence. The Quebec Crown ultimately determined no charges would be laid against Frontal. The breed identification of the attacking dog was itself disputed: the Humane Society International obtained a copy of the registration documents for the dog owned by Frontal, which listed his dog as a boxer, even though police had described it as a pit bull. Results of a DNA test cited in a subsequent coroner's report found the dog was 87.5 percent American Staffordshire Terrier, a breed associated with pit bulls.
Montreal's new bylaw defined pit bulls as Staffordshire bull terriers, American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, and any mix with those breeds, as well as any dog that presents characteristics of one of those breeds. That last provision drew immediate criticism. According to NPR, journalist and author Bronwen Dickey, speaking about the bylaw, noted that the ban contained a provision covering any dog with a characteristic of a pit bull breed, without specifying which characteristics applied. Multiple studies have confirmed that visual identification of pit bull dogs is highly subjective and unreliable.
On Sept. 27, 2016, the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed a motion in the Superior Court of Quebec in Montreal, asking the court to stay the new bylaw targeting pit bull-type dogs. The organization argued that the new provisions ran counter to article 898.1 of the Civil Code of Quebec, which grants animals the status of sentient beings, and that the definition of "pit bull" in the rule was too vague. Neighboring province Ontario had already enacted a pit bull ban in 2005, upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2009, and that decision was cited by the Quebec Court of Appeal in a December 2016 ruling that supported the Montreal ban.
The Montreal ban had a short legislative life. Montreal's new mayor lifted the sweeping ban on pit bulls roughly 15 months after it took effect; the original bylaw had made it illegal to adopt or otherwise acquire a pit bull within city limits, and required any grandfathered pit bulls to be muzzled in public and kept on a leash no longer than 4 feet, with owners required to purchase a special permit and pass a criminal background check. Mayor Valerie Plante and her political party, Project Montreal, which won a majority of city council seats in the November 2017 municipal election, had made repeal of the ban a campaign promise. The episode nonetheless set off a broader provincial debate, with the Quebec National Assembly later moving to consider its own province-wide breed restrictions under Bill 128 [3].
References
[1] NPR. (2016, September 30). Montreal Bans Pit Bull Dog Ownership After Deadly Attack. https://www.npr.org/2016/09/30/496119921/montreal-bans-pit-bull-dog-ownership-after-deadly-attack
[2] CBC News. (2016, June 11). Family of Montreal woman mauled by dog wants Quebec-wide pit bull ban. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-woman-mauled-quebec-pit-bull-ban-1.3630599
[3] Animal Legal Defense Fund. (2018). Montreal Repeals Controversial Pit Bull Ban. https://aldf.org/article/montreal-repeals-controversial-pit-bull-ban/