Every morning Clark’s Harbour resident Mason Landry and his dog Gizmo have a morning routine. They go to Tim Hortons where Landry buys Gizmo a box of Timbits.
The flavour is original, much like Gizmo.
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, this daily ritual was more than just a snack, it was also a celebration after a judge ruled in Landry’s favour midway through a trial that day in which the Town of Clark’s Harbour was saying that Landry had violated the town’s banned breed dog bylaw.
After the town presented its case in Shelburne provincial court, and before the defence called any evidence, Landry’s lawyer Regan Murphy asked Judge James Burrill to rule that the town had not proven its case as there was no evidence that Gizmo was a banned breed.
“The judge agreed with that,” Murphy said, and he acquitted Landry. “The only evidence that was even presented was from the bylaw officer that when she saw the dog it had a flat head and she thought that may have been something that a pit bull or a banned breed had. But again, she admitted in her testimony that she wasn’t an expert in dog breeds.”
Landry is thrilled with the court outcome. “I’m stoked,” he said in an interview. “The evidence given was not good enough and the case was thrown out and I’m able to keep my dog, which I’m super happy about.”
Gizmo – who turned two years old in January – was adopted by Landry from the Yarmouth SPCA when the dog was eight months old. In July 2019, Landry received a knock on the door of his Clark’s Harbour home. He was given a letter and a ticket by a Town of Clark’s Harbour bylaw officer advising him that there had been an anonymous complaint that his dog was suspected of being one of the breeds banned by the town’s dog bylaw. This was the first time the bylaw was being enforced since it had been created in 2011.
Breeds that have been deemed “fierce and dangerous” under the bylaw include Pit Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Pit Bull, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Rottweiler “or any dog of mixed breed which includes any of the aforementioned breeds.” The town’s bylaw also includes “any dog with a known propensity, tendency or disposition to attack, without provocation, persons or other domestic animals; or any dog which has bitten a person or another domestic animal without provocation.”
In a previous interview, Clark’s Harbour Mayor Leigh Stoddart said at the time the town had created the bylaw there was a Rottweiler always on the loose and “was doing bad things to other people’s dogs and the kids were scared of him.” About the banned breeds he said there are other places in the province they can live in. He also said the town had to err on the side of safety in sticking with the bylaw.
Landry immediately knew he would fight the town on this. He wanted to keep his dog and said Gizmo was neither fierce or dangerous.
Murphy – a dog owner himself and a lawyer with the Yarmouth law firm Nickerson Jacquard Russell – took Landry's case on pro-bono. He called the bylaw discriminatory and flawed, noting it didn’t give bylaw officers and sort of leeway to figure out what breed a dog is, nor carry any exceptions for therapy or service dogs. Landry also feels the bylaw is wrong because it places the blame for behaviour on a dog as opposed to an owner and paints breeds of dog all with the same brush, which is unfair, he says.
Although there was no onus on him to do so, Landry had a DNA test carried out on Gizmo that cleared the dog of having any pit bull DNA or the DNA of other breeds identified in the town’s bylaw. He was found instead to be a mix of five other dog breeds (German Shorthaired Pointer, Weirmaraner, Australian Shepherd, Labrador Retriever and Boxer). Murphy said they were prepared to enter that DNA testing as evidence in court but things never got that far.
Meanwhile, Murphy thinks bylaw changes are in order, saying, “There should certainly be changes made to the legislation that bans specific breeds. I think it’s problematic and even the SPCA takes that position in their correspondence with the town. I’d like to see it changed, I’m not sure if it’s going to happen.”
“But certainly this acquittal of Mr. Landry is positive in that it shows that the town simply can’t issue bylaw violations and have people found guilty of something based on suspicion of what they think the dog is," Murphy said.
On Landry’s Facebook page his cover photo is a banner that reads: “Vote Gizmo Landry for Mayor of Clark’s Harbour. He’s a good boy.”
“A guy from the States saw the story and made that sticker for us so we’ve been posting them like crazy ever since then,” Landry said. “It’s been a huge thing in our area, these stickers, everyone is putting them on their cars.”
The day before his day in court had been Landry’s birthday. He called the Feb. 5 court decision allowing him to keep Gizmo at his home “a really great gift.”
“My dog is the most loving dog I’ve ever had,” Landry said. “I’ve had three or four dogs. He’s the most caring and loving I’ve had.”
(With files from Kathy Johnson)
