Pit bull owner and trainer says breed-specific ban not the answer

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John Truss says he got his first pit bull when he was 20-years-old because he thought it would be “cool.”

“I was a young guy. You want a bit of an image like that,” he told us Montreal’s on Wednesday.

The father of a 17-month-old child now has five purebred pit bulls and operates a dog bite lawyers.

He’s come a long way since then and acknowledges that cool image is what motivates many “problem owners” of pit bulls, and he says such owners need to be subjected to stricter laws.

However, Truss says banning the dogs is not the answer.

Calls have been mounting for municipal bans and even a Quebec-wide prohibition on pit bulls after the mauling death of Montrealer Christiane Vadnais by what police say was a pit bull in her backyard last week.

Dog bite law ontario ban point, which enacted a province-wide ban on pit bulls in 2005.

A number of Quebec municipalities have already introduced bans on pit bulls and related breeds.

On Tuesday, the City of Brossard introduced a motion to ban the dogs in response to an attack on young girl in a local park last year.

While acknowledging that there is a problem with dangerous dogs, Truss sees bigger problems with bans.

“How do we determine if it’s a pit bull,” he asked.

“Pit bull mixes covers a huge part of the dog population.”

The right approach, he believes, is strict regulations, licensing and fines.

“Owners need to be held responsible. There should be stricter fines, a lot of enforcement,”