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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Some good news out of Ontario for two condemned young dogs. They’ve been shipped to the SPCA in Fredericton, New Brunswick. It’s a shame that Shawn Berry from the Daily Gleaner felt it necessary to end the story by quoting from the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeals judges. In my opinion, it is probably one of the most inaccurate and inflammatory statements ever put into print by a judge about “pit bulls”.

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Somehow, Ozzy Osbourne has morphed from bat-eating heavy metal rock star (who I thought was great) to reality TV family man to now self-appointed expert on dog breed identification and dog behaviour.

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I was in a bookstore yesterday browsing the pet section and came across Ingrid Newkirk’s book “The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights”. I didn’t buy it, although I still may. What I did do, however, was collect all my earlier articles on animal rights organizations. Here is what I’ve collected to-date.

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I sent a letter to CBS about David Letterman slamming pit bulls. Not that I hope to get past the first level of their screening machine, but who knows?

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Kyra Sedgwick was on David Letterman on December 11 and mentioned the pit bull puppy that she and husband Kevin Bacon have adopted. Letterman then proceeded to “joke in all earnestness” about the killer nature of these dogs.

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Here is a letter sent to Nike by a friend. I’d like to see the company’s response!

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In my opinion, there is one business reason and one business reason only for Nike to provide Vick with their brand name apparel and that’s in the hopes that he will wear it publicly, particularly on television.

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Nike is denying that they have a contract with Michael Vick.

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According to Michael Vick’s agent, the NFL player has re-signed an endorsement contract with Nike, two years after they dropped him for his involvement in dog fighting.

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Here is a reasonably intelligent commentary on “pit bulls”, albeit from an author who is admittedly biased toward this particular type of dog. Like myself, however, he wasn’t always that way.You can read his story at: http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/article.aspx?id=17766 In general, this is a well-articulated discussion of the plight of these dogs on this continent. There are, [...]

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Craig McInnes of the Vancouver Sun wrote this article in September which initially appeared to lament the dangers of loose dogs to children.The basic premise of the first third of his story, and certainly the gist of the headline, is that a child, when walking or playing in a place where the child is supposed [...]

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Tuesday uncovered a few more media outlets covering the story of the eleven-year-old boy ordering his dog to attack other children.I won’t be so presumptious as to pretend that letters to the editors from myself and others made a difference. It’s probably just the rest of the news organizations catching up to the Toronto Star. [...]

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Thank you to the Toronto Star for being the ONLY paper to print this story.I was not able to find the story in any other newspaper. This incident did not happen in a small, obscure town with only one daily or weekly paper. This happened in Toronto, with at least six daily newspapers and many [...]

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The blatant media pandering to an irrational public fear is starting to get a little old.Below, I’ve copied all three articles from the St. Catharines Standard about a dog and woman being bitten by a “pit bull”. I had to do this because, unfortunately, the Standard, like the rest of the Osprey Media publications, start [...]

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Here is a brief summary of a survery conducted by Ipsos Canada. The summary was also produced by Ipsos, so the “interesting tidbits” listed for each city have been selected by the editors of the news release and, as such, may not actually be the most revealing statistics. I’m hoping to get the full report [...]

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Not much leaves me speechless, but this story at CNN sure did. Based on the history of cases like this in the U.S., I was not expecting a positive outcome for the dogs.Most of Vick’s dogs will go to families and a ‘sanctuary’ Thanks to KC Dog Blog and Donna at Bad Rap for this [...]

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