This past Tuesday, the city council of Montreal voted 37 to 23 in favor of a bylaw that will effectively ban pit bulls from the city. Actually, the city council decided to take this ban a step further by not only banning pit bulls, themselves, but any dog that has a bit of pit bull in them or even has some of the same characteristics as one, included but not limited to a large head, beating heart and eyes full of life and love. The primary breeds being targeted are:

staffordshire bull terriers,

american pit bull terriers,

and american staffordshire terriers.

Any and all dogs that meet these immensely broad characteristics and/or even appear to look like any of the dogs pictured above will be hunted down by the city. If they don't have an owner by law, they will be euthanized because they are classified as "dangerous dogs" regardless of them having done nothing but most likely sit in neglect for their entire lives, abandoned and abused by their owners. The shelters within Montreal are trying their hardest to get dogs out of the shelters into safe areas but it's very hard to do so considering how many dogs there are and the chance of getting dogs adopted regardless of the situation.

As for the dogs who are lucky enough to have owners, they will not be ordered to be euthanized right away. However, to keep their dog legally breathing, owners must meet the strict standards for a permit that they must purchase. To meet the standards of the permit, the owner of the dog must have proof that the dog was adopted before the ban, have proof that the dog is neutered/spayed (probably over $100 to get this done if not done already), have a background check done and issue a request before the end of the year, where they will have to pay $150. Once they have the license the dog must be watched at all times, muzzled in public and kept on a four foot leash at the most. If any of these criteria are violated, the dog will have its euthanization ordered and this must be performed within 48 hours, which could be hard considering that many vets have already said that they will not euthanize dogs as a result of this bylaw. Still they will be forced to put an honest effort towards finding a vet that will. Oh, and if an owner wants to fight the law by not paying for the execution of their family member, they will be fined upwards of $300 and the dog will be taken.

Have a theft charge for a pack of cigarettes?

Have to work and leave your 16 year old kid with the dog that they raised from puppyhood for an hour after they get back from school?

Can't afford to pay the $150 fine as well as other equipment to meet the requirement for the permit on top of everything else you have to pay for, including care for the dog in question?

If you live in Montreal, these will all result in the order for your dog's death and/or heavy fines. It doesn't matter if you're a model citizen, working hard or love your dog more than anything in the world. If you can't pay the city for having a dog they are scared of, you are violating the law, come October 3rd.

The amount of guidelines and the money required for owners to keep their dogs will force them to choose either their financial stability or their dogs, their family, their alarm clocks, their companion, their cuddle buddy, their mop, their everything because the city of Montreal is too afraid of a dog breed that was villainized by the humans and criminals that decided to train them and abuse them into becoming weapons for the entertainment of other people. For the greed of these brutal people, pit bulls and other dogs like them were trained to be fighting dogs. They were torn to bloody pieces by these fights and since then people have never forgiven them for being the dog breed that people started to make fight each other.

When I searched images of pit bulls on Google, the first category of suggestions was pictures of them fighting. Not the countless pictures of them kissing their owners, snuggling with people if they're scared of a thunder storm, waking the family with kisses or being held like big, slobbery babies.

The city council used the death of a 55 year old woman as the rallying point for this law. She was attacked by a dog and killed - the dog possibly not even being a pit bull, but the police have yet to get back to them with a DNA test. Her death matters because she was a life that was lost, possibly due to negligence on the owner's part. But regardless of the dog being a pit bull or not, using this attack and the sentiment surrounding pit bulls to scare people into believing that they are genetically violent is ridiculous. Pit bull bans haven't worked in other places either. Ontario put into effect a similar ban 11 years ago and the amount of dog bites per year went up. Along with the dog bites, it tore harmless dogs away from caring families.

I don't know if the city council of Montreal has ever looked into the eyes of a pit bull before, but they should. They may not be able to, actually, because the dog may try to lick their faces before they can get a good look at them. I'm a firm believer that looking into the eyes of another living creature is an indescribable moment. Emotion and personality, as intangible as the words are meant to be, have meaning in those moments but also in how those creatures act.

My aunt has two pit-resembling dogs. One of them was saved when he was a puppy because the owner didn't want them and was starving the whole litter out. He was the last one to survive and so they named him Uno. Uno is the most energetic little baby in the world, who would wait by the door every morning to wake my brother up by just drenching his face with dog spit. The other one was chained up in Detroit and she still has marks on her ears where the maggots were eating at her. For the little heart shape of white fur on her tan body, her name is Cupid. She's the most gentle dog I've ever met. Whenever she jumps on you to say hello (if welcomed up, of course) it's as if she is careful to not put any weight of hers on you. They live with love for everyone they meet. In fact, my own dog, whom I just got a year ago as a little puppy, may even resemble a pit in the slightest. He's got a big head, but he's the biggest baby you could ever meet. Whenever I sit down everywhere, he finds a way to snuggle up to me or sit on me. He cries a lot and loves to climb into one-person chairs to sit in a person's lap. He's my little shadow and it's hard to be away from him for school, but to think that he could be taken away if I couldn't pay $150 in fines along with my own moral issues with putting a muzzle on him - that's absolutely infuriating.

In contrast, a little white fluffy dog in my neighborhood has bitten multiple people and another corgi in my neighborhood bit me on the nose when I was bending over to pet them. I still have the scar. You see, these dogs aren't bad dogs. They felt uncomfortable and couldn't respond in words, so they responded in action. Their actions aren't completely justified, but I'm not going to blame all of small dog kind because their breeds can be little aggressive bundles of fur.

Dogs, like people, have emotions, minds and lives. Due to these existing, they have beneficial, lovely characteristics like caring, empathy and love; they have a place in their families and a place on their bellies where they kick their leg if you scratch it. They are alive. Just like humans, you can find bad ones easier than the good ones because the bad ones are louder on our Facebook feeds and news reports. We don't like violence and bloodshed. But we're only ruining ourselves and feeding the violence if we let our fears lead us to senselessly murdering hundreds of dogs and tearing away the closest of friends that a person may have just because their head is big and they look "dangerous" to a city council.