City stands by letter!!!!!

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The city is sticking by its order to muzzle a kid-friendly pit bull. Even though the dog in question, ‘Socks’ has never bitten anyone and spends his day with children at a day care, the city's not taking any chances.

“What we don't want is a licensed care provider at home and they would be taking care of kids and one of the kids get hurt by the owner's pit bull. We don't want for that to happen,” explained Coun. Olivia Chow.

Despite the dog’s unblemished past, Toronto Public Health has ruled ‘Socks’ must wear a muzzle in the presence of children at Valerie Skeete's home child care facility. She was notified of the order at the beginning of January.

Her only recourse now is to appeal.

“I don't agree with it,” Skeete said. “I understand why they're doing it … I mean there have been some nasty attacks, but I think it boils down to the owner of the dog, and this is not an aggressive dog.”

The Board of Health says they're not just looking at pit bulls, but all potentially dangerous dogs, and could be adding more to the list.

“If it's across the board, then I don't have a problem with it,” Skeete argued. “If it's across board and it's about the safety of the children, that's fine. But as it stood before, it was just two homes, two providers (had) pit bulls and it was the safety of the children in those homes. My question was what about the safety of the children in all the other homes (with other breeds)?”
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[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]January 27, 2005[/font]