Grrrrrrrr!!!!! Bitches be in danger up in here!!

Not like they didn’t suffer enough – bitches and male dogs that is – before, under A-300 (the one that started out with the infamous cat licenses). Now HRM Council virtually criminalizes dog by-law offences with the new A-700, with fines of $100 up to $5000 (without any hint of a graduated scale to pinpoint the amount) and added a host of over-the-top constraints on dogs deemed dangerous to boot.
Problem is, the law defines dangerous pretty broadly! ANY dog is dangerous if their owner is convicted on a charge of owning a dog that attacks – and an attack can be a “bite” or a dog that “threatens” – both subjective; nothing sets out what a bite is (through skin?) or the standard for “threaten”.
Dogs are not criminals and their owners have constitutional rights, but you’d never know it in Halifax! —Humane Halifax for BETTER Animal Control in HRM

This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2015.