City of Brampton hires an outside lawyer
Written by Steve Barker on February 24th, 2010
The city of Brampton has hired an outside lawyer to continue to persecute the owners of docile family pets, including a 75-year-old lady on a pension.
Category Archives: Cities
Unbelievable misuse of taxpayers’ money
Written by Steve Barker on February 13th, 2010
I have to say, I cannot recall ever seeing a city do this before. The City of Brampton has taken out a full-page ad in their local newspaper in order to “defend” their employees’ actions in seizing two family pets and scheduling their destruction. So, not only does Rui Branco (the owner of one of the dogs) have to pay for his own lawyer, but his (and many other irate dog owners’) taxes are being used to help the city try to kill his dog and to try to hoodwink the public with cover-their-butt propaganda!
Can’t travel through Winnipeg with my dog, either!
Written by Steve Barker on February 7th, 2010
Some people made a suggestion to a friend of mine that, if she wants to move from the West Coast of Canada to Nova Scotia with her dogs, she should drive to Winnipeg and then fly the rest of the way in order to skip dog-hating Ontario. I investigated that possibility and here’s the (bad) news.
News articles about Brampton dogs and letters to the editors
Written by Steve Barker on February 3rd, 2010
Here are all the news stories I can find about the two dogs seized in Brampton. I have also included info for writing letters to the editors of the major Toronto and national newspapers, as well as the Brampton Guardian.
Two boxer-crosses seized as "pit bulls" in Brampton
Written by Steve Barker on January 30th, 2010
Brampton, Ontario, has really put their foot in it this time! These are two more cases that really need both media and public attention, ASAP.
Toledo’s "pit bull" law unconstitutional!
Written by Steve Barker on January 22nd, 2010
Great news! Portions of Toledo Ohio’s pit bull restrictions have been struck down by a judge.
Kitchener-Waterloo pit bull committee meeting minutes 1997
Written by Steve Barker on January 19th, 2010
I saw a discussion about pit bull myths on Facebook and it reminded me of some documents I have from government meetings regarding the city of Kitchener, Ontario. Here are some of the crazier things that were said by authorities at those meetings.
Great article on responsible dog ownership
Written by Steve Barker on January 16th, 2010
Here is a great article by LeeAnn O’Reilly, president of the Dog Legislation Council of Canada, with whom I have worked for six years.
Another dictatorship town in Canada
Written by Steve Barker on January 11th, 2010
Carstairs, Alberta, has a dog bylaw that restricts three “breeds”. One isn’t a breed at all and the other two are misspelled!
What if the Denver "pit bull" tribunal is wrong?
Written by Steve Barker on October 21st, 2009
Any time someone makes the “gods” of breed identification look like idiots, I’m all for it!
Dead dogs from Denver
Written by Steve Barker on October 2nd, 2009
WARNING! The following links contain pictures of dead dogs, dogs that have died as a direct result of Denver’s ban on “pit bulls”.
Another tin-pot dictatorship I’ll never visit!!
Written by Steve Barker on October 1st, 2009
Neguac, New Brunswick (Canada), has passed a bylaw banning “pit bulls”. The town has NOT included a grandfather clause, which means that all existing dogs that fall under their definition must leave the town immediately or be confiscated.
Attention politicians! Dog owners DO vote!
Written by Steve Barker on September 30th, 2009
The former mayor of Paradise Newfoundland found out the hard way yesterday that not only do dog owners vote, they don’t forget.
Calgary Animal Services
Written by Steve Barker on September 24th, 2009
Yesterday, I went to Nanaimo BC to attend a seminar by Bill Bruce, manager of Bylaw Services for Calgary Alberta. Putting it bluntly, Calgary has the best run Animal Services department in North America. Here’s a quick overview.
Maddie, Carter, and Capone are going home!
Written by Steve Barker on September 21st, 2009
The city of Sarnia has issued a press release saying that the three dogs from my earlier story are going to be released to their owners. Great news!
The story of Maddie, Carter, and Capone
Written by Steve Barker on September 19th, 2009
UPDATE Sept 21 2009: All three dogs have been determined to not be “pit bulls” and have been released to their owners.
ORIGINAL STORY September 19 2009: The Dog Legislation Council has been dealing with an issue that, up until yesterday, was kept under the radar in the hopes that things could be worked out amicably between the dogs’ owners and Sarnia Animal Control. Since the story hit the local newspaper yesterday, September 18, I feel it’s necessary to let everyone know what’s going on.
Kudos to Nackawic! No more BSL!
Written by Steve Barker on September 12th, 2009
Congratulations to Nackawic town council for listening to your dog owners! There are plenty of other places in this country that could learn a thing or two from you.
Sarnia and "pit bulls": city on shaky legal ground
Written by Steve Barker on June 13th, 2007
There’s a little thing going on in Sarnia, Ontario, this week that illustrates some serious problems with cities being far too eager to apply the vague, unenforceable, and unconstitutional Dog Owners’ Liability Act.The Sarnia Observer has four related stories: Dog census underway in city Seized dogs face execution Dogs gain stay of execution Local rallies [...]
Update on Yarmouth: Somebody’s listening
Written by Steve Barker on October 16th, 2006
YARMOUTH (NS) — Downtown business owners have voted against a dog ban proposed by town council.Read the full story here. Although this is no guarantee that the politicians won’t still do something silly, at least the people voicing the original concerns have managed to look at things logically and rationally. Here’s my original article.
Yarmouth, NS: Not anti-breed, just anti-dog!
Written by Steve Barker on October 10th, 2006
Sigh! Another example of the movement by politicians towards completely isolating dog owners from the rest of society. Another town to add to my list of places in Canada I choose not to visit.Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is considering banning ALL dogs from the town’s Main Street and possibly from the entire downtown core. Representatives for [...]