Critics find Quebec dog attack law 'erratic' and 'absurd'

Lawyer Bernard Raymond describes Quebec's Bill 128 as "a smoke show."

One of his clients is the keeper of the dogs that attacked two women in the municipality of Val-des-Sources in August 2021.

Since then, he has taken part in several counter-examinations of the legislation (An Act to promote the protection of persons by establishing a framework with regard to dogs), whose absurdities he says he observes on an almost daily basis.

"The government has dumped this responsibility in the lap of the municipalities and is giving itself a clear conscience by thinking it has done something for public safety," said the lawyer.

As soon as Bill 128 came into force, Carl Girard expressed reservations about its effectiveness. The implementation of the law eventually convinced him to leave his position as director general of the Townships SPA, an organization he had founded in 2011 and which he had been at the helm until then.

"The application of law is erratic. We are swimming in improvisation and absurdities. The big losers in this are the dogs," says the dog behaviourist, who is convinced that "the number of euthanasia cases" has skyrocketed in the last three years.

According to Girard, now founding president of the Association des entraîneurs canins du Québec (AECQ), Bill 128 gives too much latitude to municipalities, "who can do pretty much what they want, and it gives rise to absolutely hallucinating horror stories."

The dog trainer is convinced that the number of dog euthanasia cases has increased since the law came into force.

"The majority of cities interpret and apply the law as they see fit," he said. "They are not bound by the behavioural evaluation and could therefore euthanize a dog even if the veterinarian does not recommend it. Fortunately, others will be more respectful."

One of the reasons for this problem is that the committees that decide on the animal's fate are usually made up of people who have no knowledge of dog behaviour.

"Everything is decided on the basis of an impression," said Girard. "And the municipal committees that have the right of life or death over a dog are often made up of a police officer, a municipal official or a councillor. When were they formed and how?"

Patrick Lemieux, communications advisor at the Union des municipalités du Québec, disagrees, saying, "The application of the regulations varies from municipality to municipality because they don't all live in the same reality. Some have decided to be more restrictive, and others to stick to the provincial regulations. In regions where there are fewer veterinarians or where animal control has been entrusted to organizations such as SPAs, the regulations will be applied more or less severely."

Girard also questions the value of behavioural assessments that are ordered and that can lead to the declaration of a dog as "potentially dangerous."

"It's all nonsense," said Girard. "It can be done from a distance by people who don't approach the dog and don't have physical contact with it. At the SPA, when we evaluated the dangerousness of a dog after a bite, we kept it for seven days and reported on it every day to monitor its progress."

These findings lead Girard to conclude that "the right people were not consulted" in the development of the law.

Shelters and humane societies would have been best placed to enforce the law, he says.

"These people see the dogs, they interact with them," he said.

Lemieux, for his part, said that the UMQ pointed out, as early as the parliamentary commission that led to the bill, that in certain regions, access to veterinarians to evaluate the behaviour of dogs was more difficult. In doing so, the organization wanted dog educators and dog handlers, for example, to be able to carry out this assessment.

"Unfortunately, the situation does not seem to have improved in recent years," he says.

Dr. Caroline Kilsdonk, who was president of the Quebec order of veterinarians (OMVQ) when the law came into force, disagrees.

"You shouldn't be doing dangerousness assessments if you're an animal activist, in my opinion," she said. "To do assessments, you have to be a person who wants to balance humans and animals."

Her successor, Dr. Gaston Rioux, says that vets have been specifically trained to carry out dog danger assessments in accordance with the law. More than 200 professionals have reportedly undergone this training to date, and 43 openly advertise this service in their practice profiles, although many more are able to offer it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 26, 2023.