Pit bull lobby exposed in Quebec as never before

Marie-Claude Malboeuf
(Radio-Canada photo)

La Presse reporter Marie-Claude Malboeuf questioned face value of veterinary claims 

(Part II of a 2-part series.  See also Montreal & province of Quebec set to ban pit bulls.)

MONTREAL,  Quebec––Reciting a position held by the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons since 1986, current Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons president Joel Bergeron addressed media in opposition to banning pit bulls as early as June 10,  2016,  just two days after Christiane Vadnais, 55,  was fatally mauled in her own back yard by neighbor Franklin Junior Frontal’s pit bull.

Quebec premier Philippe Couillard,  health minister Gaétan Barrette,  and public security minister Martin Coiteux responded with recommendations for excluding pit bulls from the province.

From left: Quebec premier Philippe Coullard; Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau; and Montreal mayor Denis Coderre.

Vets briefly stalled legislative momentum

Not waiting for the Quebec National Assembly to reconvene on September 20,  2016 and pass a province-wide pit bull ban,  Montreal mayor Denis Coderre and the mayors of many other Quebec cities independently advanced ordinances against keeping pit bulls––always,  however,  with provisions allowing pit bulls already in each community to remain for the rest of their lives,  if sterilized,  vaccinated against rabies,  and kept securely.

But the momentum to ban pit bulls briefly stalled after the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons recommended to a committee appointed to advise the Quebec National Assembly about the pending dangerous dog legislation that pit bulls should not be banned.

CBC Montreal exposes double cross

“If Couillard’s government elects to abide by the recommendations in the draft committee document, marked ‘confidential’ and dated July 29, 2016,  there is no mention of a pit bull ban like the one Ontario,  where pit bulls have been banned since 2005,”  CBC Montreal revealed on August 7,  2016.

The Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons’ report,  however,  made heavy use of information provided by the pro-pit bull Animal Farm Foundation and the subsidiary National Canine Research Council,  of Bangall,  New York.

Reporter asked questions

That attracted the notice of La Presse investigative reporter Marie-Claude Malboeuf,  who in May 2016––before the fatal attack on Vadnais––had already been instrumental in bringing to public attention the disproportionate involvement of pit bulls in fatal and disfiguring dog attacks.

Obtaining hospital records from the Montreal area,  Malboeuf found that as many as 13 times more disfiguring pit bull attacks may have occurred,  at least in that region,  as the ANIMALS 24-7 log of fatal and disfiguring dog attacks has discovered.

Robert Rogers

Old invasion route

The Animal Farm Foundation is located more-or-less alongside one of the oldest transportation corridors in North America,  running up the Hudson River,  Lake Champlain,  and Richelieu River into Quebec.

Quebecois have learned over the centuries to be careful about what comes up it.

Roger’s Rangers,  for instance,  traveled that route to attack St. Francis-sur-Richelieu in 1759,  killing 30 Abenaki who sought refuge at a Catholic mission,  a toll comparable to the Canadian dog attack death toll since 2000.  Among the victims were 20 women and children,  also comparable numbers.

Expedition leader Robert Roberts later volunteered to help fight for U.S. and Quebec independence,  but soon defected to the British side.

Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold meanwhile led an army up the Hudson-Champlain-Richelieu corridor to attack St. Jean-sur-Richelieu and  Quebec City in 1775.  Arnold then occupied Montreal for several months,  but beginning in 1778 became a double agent for the British,  like Roberts,  and in 1780 was caught trying to sell the West Point fortifications and garrison to the British.

Because Arnold’s actions thwarted Quebecois hopes of winning independence from Britain at the same time the U.S. did,  he is still routinely burned in effigy at Quebec celebrations of St. Jean Baptiste Day and the Fourth of July.

Impounded pit bulls.

Quebec was invaded three times more through the Hudson-Champlain-Richelieu corridor during the next 100 years,  by U.S. troops during the War of 1812 and in 1866 and 1870 by Fenian rabbles seeking to capture Quebec,  then trade it back to the British to win Irish independence.

“Millionaire lobby promoting pit bulls”

But Malboeuf did not have to hark back to history to identify the threat to Quebec health and safety coming up the Hudson-Champlain-Richelieu corridor in the summer of 2016.

And Malboeuf and La Presse lost no time in identifying what she termed “activists funded by the millionaire lobby promoting pit bulls,”  whose advice fueled “conflict of interest” in the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons’ recommendations.

Barry Pless.  (YouTube photo)

Barry Pless

Malboeuf took the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons’ report to McGill University professor emeritus Barry Pless,  whom Malboeuf introduced as “a Harvard-educated leading authority in pediatric trauma, epidemiology and biostatistics.”

Pless formerly headed the Clinical Research division at the Montreal Children’s Hospital,  and founded and for 40 years edited the international journal Injury Prevention,  affiliated with the British Medical Journal.

Pit bull mix.
(Beth Clifton)

Said Pless,  “Doing studies that are primarily intended to prevent the adoption of laws,  without declaring conflicts of interest,  is the strategy employed by the gun lobby and the tobacco lobby.”

Misrepresentations & omissions

Pless and Malboeuf identified numerous alleged misrepresentations and omissions by the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons in identifying and describing purported peer-reviewed studies of dog attacks.

Omitted from a 15-year study of dog attacks in Texas,  for example,  was the researchers’ conclusion that “Regulating pit bulls could substantially reduce death rates from dog bites.”

Montgomery County dog warden Mark Kumpf with pit bull advocate Jane Berkey, who helped Kumpf to undo the Ohio law recognizing pit bulls as inherently “vicious” dogs.

“Equality for pit bulls”

Also not mentioned,  Malboeuf pointed out,  was that the National Canine Research Council,  whose claims the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons appeared to accept without question,  “belongs to a pressure group,  the Animal Farm Foundation, entirely dedicated to defending pit bulls,”  under the motto “Equality for pit bulls.”

Animal Farm Foundation founder,  heiress,  and literary agent Jane Berkey “has contributed at least $6 million to the organization,  including $2.85 million in 2013,”  reported Malboeuf,  citing IRS Form 990 filings.  “It pays nine employees,  including a director who earns more than $ 100,000 per year,  and funds many groups that share its philosophy.

Former Calgary animal control chief Bill Bruce, now consulting for the Animal Farm Foundation.

Advisors & consultants

“To produce studies,”  Malboeuf continued,  “the Animal Farm Foundation in 2007 purchased a private research organization,  the National Canine Research Council,  established by an animal care technician,  Karen Delise.  An ‘action fund’ allows the organization to lobby.

“The NCRC has partnered with various advisors and consultants,”  Malboeuf added,  including Animal Rescue League of Boston employee Gary Patronek and former Calgary animal control chief Bill Bruce,  “who still occupied his official position,”  Malboeuf noted,  “when he agreed to join the NCRC.”

Best Friends Animal Society

Malboeuf also identified the longtime close relationship between the Animal Farm Foundation and the Best Friends Animal Society,  which raises an annual budget of circa $60 million with the motto “Save them all.”

Best Friends’ senior attorney Ledy VanKavage,  Malboeuf mentioned “serves on the board of the Animal Farm Foundation.  The Best Friends Animal Society website says it has paid a former economist for the tobacco industry,  John Dunham,  to create a tax calculator meant to indicate how much would cost governments to ban pit bulls.”

The Dunham calculator estimated the alleged annual cost of enforcing the pit bull ban in effect since 1989 in Miami-Dade,  Florida,  at 65 times what it actually is,  according to Miami-Dade county data.

Can you identify Santa?

Identifying pit bulls

Among the recurring themes of Animal Farm Foundation arguments in sponsored “studies” is the purported difficulty of accurately identifying pit bulls for legislative,  law enforcement,  and insurance purposes,  even though the organization has no difficulty in identifying them for advocacy purposes.

“Delise revisited all fatal dog attacks committed from 2000 to 2009,”  Malboeuf summarized. “According to her,  the media identify the same breed of dog as the authorities in 83% to 89% of dog attack cases.  She concludes nevertheless that they are right only 18% of the time.

“The animal care technician [Delise] has no evidence that the media are wrong.  But for her,  no dog can be identified as a pit bull, German shepherd,  etc.,  unless purebred and officially registered with a club,”  Malbouef wrote.

The Manitoba study.

“Nonsense!”

Commented Pless,  “These distinctions as to the purity of the breed are nonsense!  If the dog looks like a pit bull, behaves like a pit bull,  and people recognize in him a pit bull,  that should be enough to say that we are dealing with a pit bull,”  a conclusion also repeatedly reached by both U.S. and Canadian courts of law.

Overlooked or understated by the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons were studies published by Injury Prevention finding that banning pit bulls had reduced the hospitalization rates for dog bites in Catalonia,  Spain by 38% and in Manitoba by 18%.  The Manitoba study,  considered the best of the best by Pless,  reviewed 20 years’ worth of data.

Vet tech with pit bull. (Beth Clifton photo)

Vets fear client pressure

Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons’ spokesperson Michel Pepin told the Quebec National Assembly that veterinarians “fear a new law might force them to euthanize healthy dogs and make their work difficult,”  Malboeuf summarized. “Customers are already asking them to falsify the records of dogs to hide that the dogs are pit bull. Others want veterinarians to certify that their dog is not dangerous – almost impossible to guarantee,  even if only a minority of pit bulls bite seriously.”

Animal shelters “fear for their structure and their already precarious financial health” if they register “a phenomenal increase in the number of abandoned dogs,”  the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons said,  according to Malboeuf.

Pit bull advocates protest in front of Julie Kowal’s memorial to dog attack victims in September 2014.

Surgical costs

“Dr. Pless hopes the government will not forget to check simultaneously the surgical costs incurred to save the faces,  the hands – and sometimes the lives – of victims of bites,”  Malboeuf wrote.  “Not to mention the indirect costs. How much is a lost eye or a torn face worth?  Paying for prevention is nothing compared to what we save.”

The Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons recommended that Quebec should adopt non-breed-specific legislation modeled on that of Calgary,  Alberta,  but did not mention that bites at the most severe level in Calgary have in recent years increased at a rate of as much as 20% per year.

Joel Bergeron

Quebec data

Malboeuf found that 48% of the dog bites reported in the Montreal suburb of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve from 2011 to 2015 were by pit bulls,  who also inflicted 60% of the reported bites in nine other Montreal suburbs in 2010;  69% of the reported bites in Rosemont in 2015;  and 32% of the bites reported in Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles,  where Christiane Vadnais was killed.

After Malboeuf published her findings,  Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons president Joel Bergeron beat a quick retreat from some aspects of the veterinarians’ report on the CBC Montreal radio program Daybreak.

Vets “lack rigor & transparency”

Editorialized the Montreal Gazette on August 15,  2016,  “The committee struck by the public safety minister tabled a preliminary report that recommended against a breed-specific ban,  but suggested more general measures for dealing with dangerous pets. This proposed course of action relied heavily on a study submitted by the Ordre des médecins vétérinaire du Québec [Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons] that concluded pit bulls are no more vicious than other kinds of dogs.

“But as La Presse has revealed,  the veterinary body cited five studies out of about 50 that were funded by the pit bull lobby,  such as the National Canine Research Council,  without disclosing their origins.  At the same time, the veterinarians listed four recent medical studies on the gravity of injuries suffered from dog attacks,  but downplayed the role of pit bulls.

“At best,”   the Montreal Gazette said,  “the expertise of the Quebec College of Veterinary Surgeons lacks scientific rigor and transparency.  At worst,  the veterinarians’ group is in a serious conflict of interest.

Quebec pit bull legislation may catch up soon to the longtime recommendations of Montreal-based National Post & ANIMALS 24-7 columnist Barbara Kay.

“The time has come to ban pit bulls in Quebec”

“The order’s president now says he recognizes those studies funded by pit bull defense groups should have been excluded or properly nuanced.  He says there was no intention to minimize the risks posed by the dogs.  But the veterinarians’ credibility has been damaged.

“The time has come to ban pit bulls in Quebec,”  the Montreal Gazette concluded.  “The shoddy work of the order of veterinarians only underscores the urgency of decisive action.”

(This is Part II of a two-part series.  See also Montreal & province of Quebec set to ban pit bulls.)

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