The former mayor of Paradise Newfoundland found out the hard way yesterday that not only do dog owners vote, they don’t forget.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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…

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…

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…

A recent article on Dog Politics discussed a proposal in New Jersey to require all “pit bull” owners to be photographed, pay an extra registration fee, and have signficant personal information recorded in a central database. I have been going through all the bylaws and…

In an earlier article, I introduced you to Shire, a licensed pet therapy dog working with special needs children in New Brunswick. She has been targeted by the town of Florenceville because she is a Rottweiler.Her owner is an employee of McCain Foods Canada and…