Burnaby considers stiffer fines, fees for pitbulls

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BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Burnaby is considering taking a tougher stand against pitbulls.

The city blames the breed for being its top biter.

A staff report says pitbulls account for just two per cent of licenced dogs but at least 12 per cent of biting incidents during the last few years.

That’s a statistic April Fahr of the group HugABull challenges.

“What’s behind the incident? How bad was the bite? Who made the visual ID? There was a case recently where a pitbull attack was on the news that turned out to be an English shorthaired pointer,” she says.

“What’s puzzling is that every other community around Burnaby has done the same analysis, and has seen nothing like this. We kind of have to ask ourselves ‘What’s going on in the City of Burnaby? How did they get these numbers?'”

HugABull went before city council last year, asking Burnaby to stop automatically classifying pitbulls as vicious dogs. But the city is now not only recommending the breed specific by-law remain, it also wants council to increase fines and fees.

Fahr argues there are other ways of dealing with the issue. “It’s disappointing that Burnaby seems to want to go backwards rather than this huge movement in North America to look at ownership and look at the risk factors that we know are out there.”

The city notes breed specific bylaws are also in place in Richmond and West Vancouver.

Burnaby City Council will discuss the issue this evening.

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