There's no such thing as a dangerous dog breed, says P.E.I. veterinarian

Rather than identifying specific dog breeds as dangerous, a Charlottetown veterinarian suggests that individual dogs must be evaluated on their behaviour.  The deadly mauling of a Quebec woman by a dog in June and a subsequent controversial ban on pit bulls in Montreal — which has since been suspended — have had Canadians talking about whether whether certain breeds are more dangerous than others. "You really can't pinpoint a particular breed," said Dr. Alice Crook, who will lead the discussion. She's the co-ordinator at the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown."A dangerous dog is one that's shown by its behaviour that it's dangerous in some way," she adds — those behaviours include unprovoked biting or aggression and inappropriate reactions to situations. Studies have shown, Crook explained, that breed is only one factor in dog bites — other factors are often unsupervised children under age 5 and lack of understanding of dog behaviour.  "It's a shame to put all the efforts into targeting a particular breed, that may actually penalize those dogs that may be excellent canine citizens," Crook said. While Ontario has had breed-specific legislation that bans bit bull-type dogs for about a decade, and Montreal is pursuing similar legislation, Crook said there is is no such breed as a pit bull. They are generally Staffordshire terriers, boxers and similar-looking breeds.