Steve Gagnon, owner of American Staffordshire Terrier, Odie, ran afoul of Winnipeg city officials when he moved to Winnipeg unaware his dog’s breed was banned.   Now, faced with removing Odie from the city, Gagnon plans to fight Winnipeg’s “pit bull” ban in court.   Gagnon maintains that,

“It’s not the dog it’s his upbringing. No dogs are born bad, just like no children are born bad.”

Indeed.   It’s people that potentially make both dogs and children bad through systematic abuse.  

Bill McDonald, CEO of the Winnipeg Humane Society, backed Gagnon’s claim adding,

“Pitbulls were banned in the early ’90s probably [in part] because of the crackhouse situation. So you had bad people making bad dogs, in effect to guard their operations . . . But bad people just move to other breeds. For example, a favorite in the last while has been mastiff-boxer crosses.”

CBC News further substantiated what cities like Toronto have already confirmed: That “dog bites have been on the rise the past five years in Winnipeg” despite the ban.