A new study from the University of Manitoba says there have been fewer severe dog bite injuries after Winnipeg banned aggressive breeds in 1990.
The study, written by local researchers, may add insight to the Winnipeg Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) debate.
“There are bites that happen every day – nips and bites that don’t require medical attention,” said Malathi Raghavan, a researcher in the U of M’s Faculty of Medicine. “My understanding is that the BSL is to reduce the incidents of severe bite injuries – that’s where my hypothesis comes from.”
The study looked at 16 urban and rural jurisdictions with pit bull bans and found that there was a big decrease in the number of dog-bite hospitalizations in those jurisdictions after the ban, than before.
“There has been a gradual decrease in these jurisdictions. They don’t disappear overnight, we didn’t ban them completely overnight. The dogs are allowed to live out their lives here,” she said.
"I do understand the pit bull ban - generally the public is very lazy, and someone who has a pit bull may throw them in their living room and neglect them - a happy pit bull is with their owner," said Capt.George Leonard, master trainer with Manitoba Search And Rescue, who has worked with pit bulls.
However, "Cocker Spaniels are the number one biting dog - your smaller dogs are more aggressive," he added.
Raghavan said that one flaw in the study is that she does not know what proportion of the bites came from which breeds of dogs.
“I grouped the BSL jurisdictions and compared those rates with the rest of Manitoba – it gives you an overview on how the rates look,” she said.
The 16 jurisdictions that have BSL includes Winnipeg and surrounding municipalities, areas studied that do not have BSL include Brandon and Flin Flon.