In memoriam: Comm munity will miss ‘Poppa Duck’’ Sh han ntz. 4
Arts: Braches joins search for gold. 13
Sp Sports: Bu Burrards ou ousted in first ro round. 14 We d n es d ay, Au g u s t 12, 2015 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (de li ve r y) 6 0 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 9 7
‘Ban the deed, not the breed’ Recent attacks ignite call for ban on pit bulls By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
Lougheed Highway near Laity Street, it could afford an injunction. “I’ve seen this town go downhill so fast, it’s unbelievable.” In addressing the crowd, Telford noted there were no council members present. “Interesting, isn’t it?” The walk followed 224th Street to Lougheed Highway then down the Haney Bypass to the entrance of the camp. Stretch, along with several Ridge Meadows RCMP, were there to ensure protesters didn’t enter the camp.
Pit bull attacks in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows have re-ignited calls for a ban on the breed. But the SPCA doesn’t think that is the way to go. In late July, a pit bull was killed by police after it attacked and injured a Maple Ridge paper carrier. The teen needed surgery on her hand. Then on Thursday, a Pitt Meadows couple had their Pomeranian killed by their neighbour’s pit bull. The first incident brought a quick reaction from the victim of a pit bull attack last summer. “On the one-year anniversary that our little Yorkshire terrier Tucker was attacked and shaken to death by a pit bull cross rescue dog in Pitt Meadows, I am still shocked that citizens have to put up with the so called ‘pit bull’ in all its variances,” wrote Gregg Wyatt. “There is enough evidence from hospital trauma wards to wake us up to the danger of some of these breeds. But in true Canadian fashion, we will continue to deal with outcomes rather than preventative [measures], and put our children/grandchildren in danger – except Ontario, which banned the breed and it’s derivatives in 2005.” Ontario banned breeding and importing pit bulls in 2005, and those that remain must be leashed and muzzled when appearing in public. The number of reported pit bull bites in the city of Toronto dropped from 168 in 2004, to just 13 in 2013, according to the Toronto Star. The U.K. has a Dangerous Dogs Act, which bans pit bulls and three other breeds – the Japanese tosa, the dogo Argentino and the fila Brasileiro.
See Rally, 8
See Breed, 5
Phil Melnychuk/THE NEWS
Concerned residents walk from Memorial Peace Park to just outside Cliff Avenue homeless camp Saturday.
Rally against homeless camp Residents want some accountability By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
If anyone showed up at Maple Ridge Rally For Community Safety on Saturday wanting to vent their anger on people in the camp at Cliff Avenue, they were quickly informed: No one is here to attack anyone, Jesse Stretch told the crowd. Stretch was one of the organizers of the rally that began at Memorial Peace Park and ended outside the
homeless camp on Cliff Avenue and 222nd Street. “A lot of people think we’re antihomeless, anti-poverty,” said Brett Watts. “We’re just pro-community.” What bothers a lot of people is that drug users and criminals are entrenching themselves in the camp, which has lined the street behind the Salvation Army Caring Place since spring. “So within that camp are groups of people who are really causing the problems. At some point, there has to be accountability.” Watts lives in another area, but is concerned about the homeowners
along Cliff Avenue who have put up with the camp for four months. About 75 people showed up for the rally, including former candidate for Maple Ridge council Grover Telford. Homelessness is a complicated issue and will take a long time to solve, he said, adding he supports the federal Housing First model. But he wants the city to get an injunction to allow it to remove the camp. “They have let it form and it’s proliferated into what it is now,” Telford said. If the city spent a million dollars on a bike lane to nowhere along
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