The government of New Brunswick has decided to start enforcing a law that prohibits tenants of provincial housing from owning pets, even though many of these tenants have had their animals for years. They have cracked down on two Moncton housing complexes and have given the tenants one week to get rid of their pets!

Randy Hillier, one of the sponsors of Bill 16, left a comment on my last blog entry that significantly increases my optimism about this bill’s potential to become law, so much so that I decided to write an updated article about it.

What’s the big deal with Bill 16 in Ontario? Why is it important to dog owners and why is it important for you to show up at Queen’s Park on February 23?

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.

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!

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.

In 2005, a lady wrote to then Ontario Minister of Tourism, Jim Bradley, to find out if she could drive through Ontario with her dogs to get from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia. This was his reply.

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.

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.

In case you were wondering how anybody could persuade 70+ intelligent, rational, elected government representatives to define a dog as dangerous based only on they way it looks, here’s a Toronto Star article explaining how.