ALERT:BILL 138 Nova Scotia

[Rene Allegrini]

Asked to please cross post:

On April 28th 2008,the second reading of Bill 138 quietly passed in the legislature of Nova Scotia Canada.It only takes three readings before it is too late.

BILL 138 is a lethal Bill for all dog owners as it allows any Nova Scotia municipality to ban ANY BREED OR MIXED BREED OF DOGS as it sees fit.

ALL Nova Scotia Municipalities will be permitted to (iii) regulate the ownership of fierce or dangerous dogs within the municipality (including allowing municipalities to prescribe a definition of fierce or dangerous dogs)."
Municipal Government Act (amended)

Nova Scotian's have always been an incredible support in the fight against BSL and they NEED OUR HELP NOW.

Within the next week,there will be the strong push to move BILL 138 through the legislature.Many of the MLS's already contacted by concerned dog owners, had no idea that this Bill contained BSL.

We have been assured that if there is "SIGNIFICANT" public pressure to have clauses 6- 8 removed from Bill 138,in all likelihood,it will be removed.The rest of Bill 132 can then proceed through the legislature.

WE ONLY HAVE A WEEK TO DO THIS FOLKS!

If you live in Nova Scotia find your MLA and get hold of them!

DEMAND that Clauses 6-8 be removed !That's all you have to say.

Find your MLA at this site

Electoral District Finder


For those outside NS please email or write the Premier and or the head of the Law Amendment Committee!
The Honourable Rodney MacDonald
Office of the Premier
Telephone: 902-424-6600
Fax: 902-424-7648
Toll-free Message Line: 1-800-267-1993
E-mail Address: premier@gov.ns.ca



Law Amendments Committee

Chair Honourable Cecil Clarke justmin@gov.ns.ca



LeeAnn O'Reilly, Pres.DLCC
president@doglegislationcouncilcanada.org
THE DOG LEGISLATION COUNCIL OF CANADA
"Fighting ignorance since 2003..it's taking longer than we thought."


More on the proposal:

Owners fear breed ban
Province: Municipal restrictions wouldn’t have to outlaw dogs

By PATRICIA BROOKS ARENBURG
Staff Reporter


Nova Scotia politicians are about to pass a law that has dog owners howling mad.
The Dog Legislation Council of Canada says the proposed changes to the Municipal Government Act will allow Nova Scotia municipalities to ban breeds. But a government spokeswoman says they let municipalities put some restrictions in place without banning breeds.

"They’re putting in some measures (so) that they can control a restricted dog without an outright ban," said Donna Chislett, a spokeswoman for Service Nova Scotia.

"And that’s less restrictive or prohibitive than what’s in place now for dog owners. It clarifies and it is less strict in nature."

Janet Chernin, a member of the Dog Legislation Council of Canada, doesn’t buy the explanation.

"That’s just a smokescreen," she said. "Their intent is to keep up the breed bans."

Under the Municipal Government Act, municipalities regulate the keeping of fierce or dangerous animals. They are left to define fierce or dangerous dogs, "including defining them by breed, crossbreed, partial breed or type."

The proposed changes will allow municipalities to define dogs as fierce, dangerous or restricted, also by using "behaviour or type."

Municipalities will also be able to regulate "the keeping of fierce, dangerous or restricted dogs, including requiring spaying or neutering, liability insurance, warning signs, physical controls on or off the owner’s property or training requirements," the amendments state.

Halifax regional councillor Andrew Younger called the proposed changes "ridiculous."

"Can you imagine, you have to have insurance for your dog just in case it bites somebody or causes property damage?" Mr. Younger said. ""That’s crazy. Really, this stuff’s going
overboard and at the end of the day, it’s a bad proposal."

Halifax Regional Municipality bylaws give the city the power to order a dog that has attacked a person or another animal to be muzzled, microchipped for future identification or destroyed. If the dog is deemed dangerous, the owner must keep the dog restrained on the owner’s property so that it cannot escape and keep the animal muzzled and under the control of a person 18 or over when off the owner’s property. The city has no ban on specific types or breeds.

Ms. Chislett said the proposed changes were made "in response to recommendations developed by the (Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities), and it was something that they believed that municipalities required clarification on."

They are contained in a draft discussion paper presented to all mayors and wardens in April 2007 by the municipal-provincial animal control committee, a group chaired by Dan MacDougall, chief administrative officer for the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.

That municipality has had a breed ban, specifically identifying Rottweilers, mixed-breed dogs commonly known as pit bulls and a number of other terriers, since 1995.

The municipality lost a high-profile court battle in 2006 against a local family who fought to keep their beloved 13-year-old Zeus and a pup. Neither dog had been aggressive, but both were accused of being pit bulls. The family refused to give them up, so Guysborough took them to court.

Provincial Court Judge Robert Stroud wrote, in an addendum to his ruling, that the Guysborough bylaw was constitutionally vague.

"To provide that a court could order the destruction of a dog that was merely deemed by definition to be fierce or dangerous rather than dangerous in fact would result in the legislation being overreaching and contrary to the principles of fundamental justice," he wrote.

Mr. Younger, who represents East Dartmouth-The Lakes, said he can’t understand why the province felt the need to pursue these changes.

"I look at that and I go, ‘So what you’re saying is, you didn’t like the warning from the judge so you’re going to overrule him. Like, it’s crazy. And that’s what bothers me.

"I haven’t seen any packs of Rottweilers running loose in the streets that we have to control. I’m not hearing stories from any municipality where these dogs are out of control. And where does it stop? Poodles bark a lot, so do you ban poodles because you don’t like them barking?"

Although the Dog Legislation Council of Canada had heard rumblings about possible changes, the group had no idea this was coming, Ms. Chernin said.

The group issued an alert on its website Tuesday, warning members that the Nova Scotia government "has grouped together several unrelated bills as a ‘housekeeping’ measure to clear the tables before the summer break."

Ms. Chernin has also created a Facebook page, Banned in Nova Scotia? Bill 138, calling on all Nova Scotia dog owners to contact their MLAs about the bill. The group had 152 members by Tuesday afternoon.

Bill No. 138 has gone through second reading in the legislature and was still with the law amendments committee Tuesday afternoon. But presentations to the law amendments committee were on May 13, said a woman at the Legislative Counsel Office.

Ms. Chernin, the owner of a Rottweiler and a dog daycare, said the future for dog owners in this province is bleak.

"I’m going to have to move out of Nova Scotia now," she said.

( pbrooks@herald.ca)

Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca

[gsnxz]

Thank you very much from Nova Scotia for posting this. I only hope others are doing their part to stop this Bill before it gets passed.

[Kev]

I just fired off 2 emails