Toronto pitcher Mark Buehrle to leave family behind to care for dog, outlawed in Ontario

[yeats]

Comments

[wesleysgirl]

I assume they've had the dog genetically tested (on the off chance that he might be a different breed than appearances suggest.) That's great that they're being so responsible and taking care of the dog. BSL is horrible.

[lone_concertina]

Good luck getting anyone to recognize the genetic testing as evidence of non-aggression. Our "pit" is actually 1/2 vizsla (and 100% vizsla personality), 1/4 AmStaf, and 1/4 everything from Frenchie to Labrador. Regardless of that, she still has that big block head of a pit, which is all anyone seems to care about.

[wesleysgirl]

In this specific situation it doesn't sound like they are required to prove non-aggression, it's that "pit bulls" are banned. I would hope that if one was able to prove one's dog wasn't a pit bull, through genetic testing, that would be what was required. But BSL is such crap anyway, who knows what a state or province would need as "proof."

[roseofjuly]

The problem, though, is that "pit bull" isn't any specific kind of breed. It refers to dogs in a lot of different breeds.

[cinnamontoast]

Exactly. It's just meeting a set number of qualifications on appearance. Which is absurd since a dog can attain the square head, barrel chest, etc with a number of bully/terrier breeds.

[wesleysgirl]

It's so infuriating. It would be one thing to ban a specific breed (stupid, but at least possible to enforce/obey) but Ontario's law says:
Under the amendments to DOLA, pit bull is defined as:
A pit bull terrier
A Staffordshire bull terrier
An American Staffordshire terrier
An American pit bull terrier
A dog that has an appearance and physical characteristics substantially similar to any of those dogs.

So even if you can prove that your dog is not any of the first four, if someone thinks your dog LOOKS like one of those dogs, that's enough to ban the dog. SO STUPID.