Sarnia Ignores Expert – Still Claims Death Row Dogs Pit Bulls
Sarnia's New City Crest
The idiocy in Sarnia continues, with talking head Brad Loosley now claiming that Sarnia Animal Control Officers are “highly trained professionals”, with opinions that outweigh those of internationally respected breed experts with decades of experience judging and assessing Pit Bulls.
Alan Bennet has been a dog breeder for 30 years, and a show dog judge since 1993. In that time, he has, in his own words, “Judged (American Staffordshire Terriers) all over the world”. AmStaff, by the way, is the fancy kennel club name for the dogs the rest of the world calls Pit Bulls. Mr. Bennet recently donated his time and expertise to the owners of the death row dogs in Sarnia, examing the dogs, and submitting a written report to the city of Sarnia. The dogs, says Bennet, are NOT Pit Bulls, or anything ‘substantially similar’.
From the article in the Observer:
“These dogs definitely don’t look pitbullish. Their chests are too narrow and they’re much taller than the bull breed.”
Not good enough for Sarnia Animal Control, however, who won’t back down from their own assessment, and who claim that their own ‘experts’ knowledge of Pit Bulls outweighs that of a man who has been paid to travel around the world judging them professionally. No, Sarnia AC is sticking to its guns, and now also plans to murder the sire of the two puppies originally seized:
..the city has not returned the dogs despite Bennett’s input, says Sonya Pimentel, owner of an 11-month-old pup impounded by the city’s animal control officers nearly three weeks ago.
Her dog and another pup from the same litter, as well as the puppies’ father, will be euthanized unless the owners can prove their pets are not pitbulls or look “substantially similar” to one.
So, the owners have been told that they must ‘prove that their dogs are not Pit Bulls’, which they’ve attempted to do by retaining an actual, real live, honest to God expert on Pit Bulls. “Not good enough!” claims Sarnia AC.
I think that the only thing now that can possibly save these dogs is an outpouring of public anger and outrage. I suggest you direct yours to Sarnia City Hall, since Animal Control has obviously circled the wagons and is not backing down. I’ve heard that they’re no longer answering the phone in their department – a luxury that I doubt City Hall has.
Why not let them know how you personally feel about their city’s policy of seizing dogs off the street, unprovoked, and sentencing them to death?
Sarnia is a major border crossing between Canada and the USA – perhaps a refusal to use that crossing, with the concurrent drop in city income from travelers, might hold some sway with Sarnia’s powers that be. After all, are you willing to take the chance of driving through Sarnia with your dogs? Are you confident that your dogs could escape being labeled as ‘substantially similar’ to Pit Bulls, when ‘substantially similar’ for Sarnia Animal Control seems to mean only slightly blocky headed and short coated?
Contact information for Sarnia City Hall –
City Manager – Located on the 2nd Floor at City Hall
citymngr@sarnia.ca
Lloyd Fennell, City Manager
519 332-0330 Ext. 230
All departments report to the City Manager, by the way. Oh, and look what else I found – seems that Brad Loosley wears a few hats for the city of Sarnia.
Brad Loosley, Acting Deputy City Clerk
519 332-0330 ext. 258
That’s Brad’s direct line and extension. Go nuts.
Other people have stray dogs…
… We have stray cattle.
These guys have been wandering around since Sunday, when I first saw them milling around on our side lawn. Since then, we’ve almost run into them on the road, and they’ve been enjoying an all you can eat soybean buffet in the field across the road.
They got out of a field one concession north of us, possibly spooked right through the fence by coyotes, which have been getting worse in our area. The night before we first saw the stray cattle, I was awoken at about 2 in the morning by the sound of coyotes killing something – something that screamed. My neighbours were also woken up by it – it’s a sound you don’t soon forget, once you’ve heard it.
The farmer got eight of them back, but can’t quite catch up with these guys. Apparently, they’ve been bucket raised (hand fed feed out of a bucket), so they’re usually pretty people friendly, but these six young male Charolais are spooky after almost a week of being honked at by cars and waved at by strangers.
Tonight I caught their attention, and they were willing to cautiously head in my direction, but they spooked when Bunny (unnerved by seeing six rather strange looking and disturbingly large dogs heading towards us) barked at them.
That did it – they turned tail and ran for the woods.
I hope they get home soon – it’s getting cold, and I’m really worried that one of those idiot gravel truck drivers who sometimes speed down our road is going to careen around the bend and take out the whole lot of them.