Town of Yellow Grass to Vote on Breed-Specific Legislation

The Town of Yellow Grass will read a proposed bylaw amendment at the town council meeting tonight on Breed-Specific Legislation for dogs.

After an incident last month, when a 13-year-old boy was bitten by a collie, the town had a meeting to discuss the future for dogs in Yellow Grass. Read more HERE.

Weyburn resident and Rhiannon Benjamin attended the meeting.

"Communities like Yellow Grass require you licensing your pet in that community, and so if you license your pet and they ask you to specify the breed of your pet, and you indicate your dog is a bully breed of some type that is on their dangerous dogs list, then you have to adhere to these, I guess precautions, and if you don't then there would be the possibility of fines," said Benjamin.

She said a well-behaved eight-year-old pit bull terrier was also in attendance at the meeting, noting that the dog was a good example of composure, in spite of palpable tensions.

Collie breeds, she added, are not included in the proposed legislation, which will specifically target rottweilers and bully breeds of dogs.

She explained more about the proposed legislation.

"It doesn't mean that your pit bull, or a pit bull breed, or a bully breed, and also rottweilers are targeted in the community of Yellow Grass, any kind of bully breed and rottweilers are the subject of controversy there," she said. “You don't have to re-home your dog, and it's not that they aren't allowed in the community, but there are different stipulations and rules required for when you take that dog out in public and when you that dog out in your back yard."

She explained why she is a member of Justice for Bullies, an organization that is against BSL.

"I am an advocate against breed specific legislation, primarily because I do have a pit bull terrier myself, so it's important for me, as a pet owner and pet parent, that I want to promote information regarding breed specific legislation regarding how it affects dogs and how it affects communities," she explained.

"It actually doesn't stop bites from happening,” she said. “A lot of times, when this legislation is put in place in communities, bites actually increased because dogs were under such constraint, that a lot of times, it did create more aggression in certain dogs because of that."

She said dogs don’t understand the change in the attitudes.

"If it's a dog that you haven't had aggression issues with before, they probably don't understand why they, essentially they're being punished,” she said. “All of a sudden they're under this different type of training. They wouldn't understand why that is taking place, because all of a sudden there'd be a sudden change in their management."

It's undetermined whether the town of Yellow Grass will put forth the Dangerous Dogs bylaw.