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i stitmffrilh suntribune thursday oct 30 2003 17 safety council wants bylaws against aggressive dog owners from page 1 the owner has been charged by newmarkets bylaw department meanwhile mr smith is asking the courts to order the pitbull be destroyed since the dog was already under a muzzle order after biting a woman in 2001 the attack was just the latest in a string of vicious dog incidents in the region since july york regional police have shot and killed two aggressive dogs including a pitbull roaming a keswick neighbourhood last month which police failed to bring under control despite using a lasso tranquilizer dart and pepper spray and a german shepherd that lunged at an officer following a bungled bank robbery in newmarket july 17 a stouffville man was charged in the incident police also shot and wounded a pitbull in newmarket july 22 after the dog latched on to an officers arm yorks most tragic dog attack occurred in april 1998 when an eightyearold stouffville girl was killed by a bull mastiff in the back yard of cam fella drive home courtney trempe was playing with her friends when the 120- pound dog suddenly lunged at her throat in the unprovoked attack meanwhile just days ago an 1 1 yearold pickering girl was mauled by her grandmothers two french mastiffs in- goodwood just east of stouffville doctors fear jynnle kent may lose her leg she remains in serious but stable condition after being air lifted to the hospital for sick children with lifethreatening injuries sunday safety council president emile therien said hes sick of hearing stories from across canada of vicious dogs attacking innocent courtney trempe eight-year- old stouffville girl killed by bull mastiff in 1998 attack victims these are not isolated inci dents and these are only the ones we hear about he said estimating about 460000 canadians are bitten by dogs every year its a big issue and its going to get bigger extrapolating data collected in the united states mr therien cal culates dbg bites cost the canadian health care system as much as 100 million annually its a huge huge drain on our healthcare system why does nobody get their teeth into this issue he said were not talking about rocket science here its a matter of health and safety for 500000 canadians a year mr therien is calling on politi cians and communities to make the issue a top priority although he stops short of demanding danger ous breeds such as pitbulls be out lawed in european countries that have banned aggressive species some dog owners have circumvented the legislation by developing new breeds or crossbreeds of vicious dogs mr therien argued he also believes irresponsible owners can make any dog aggres sive if they want instead mr therien urged local councillors to enact and rigorously enforce strict bylaws against own ers of aggressive dogs do bylaws have enough teeth to deal with theses incidents we dont think so he said adding he has owned dogs for most of his life people feel helpless what can they do ifs just not being addressed properly at the local level suggesting municipalities have been reluctant to tackle the issue because they fear a backlash from owners and dog lobbyists he point ed out fewer than 20 per cent of dogs in most communities are licensed as required mr therien also wants to see a national data bank to record dog bites in canada there is no compulsory report ing of dbg bites in this country optimum used vehicles if moil 5336 hwy 7 markham just east of mccowan 005 24 144 randy mole candidate for mayor sign sign everywhere a sign sorry i dont have that kind of money in 1 year his last mayor emmerson has 24500 to 44000 the council has violated the changed stouffville from a small town to a small spirit and vision of our secondary plan city should we thank him or not i promise a complete investigation into procedural discrepancies do we wish a town which reflects our humanity or one that is a developers dream