Pit Bulls in the News

On Tuesday, September 7th, 2004, the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society attended a meeting at Queen's Park in Toronto, at the request of the Attorney General of Ontario. The topic of this meeting concerned potential provincial legislation regarding the regulation of Pit Bull type dogs in Ontario.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society, along with other stakeholders from the Waterloo Region, was asked to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the current Pit Bull by-laws that exist in Kitchener & Waterloo. These by-laws went into effect in 1997.

The current by-laws prohibit any dog of any age, identifiable by the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society as any one of the following breeds: Pit Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Pit Bull, Staffordshire Bull Terrier (unless registered with the American or Canadian Kennel Club,) and the American Staffordshire Bull Terrier (unless registered with the American or Canadian Kennel Club.)

Prior to the current by-laws, there were 17 incidents involving Pit Bulls in 1995, and 18 incidents involving Pit Bulls in 1996. These reported incidents involved people only, as statistics were not kept at that time for incidents involving dogs attacking other dogs.

Since the by-laws were enacted in 1997, there have been only 8 incidents involving Pit Bulls. This figure includes both incidents involving humans and other dogs.