IN-DEPTH: Calgary dog bites jump nearly 50% as city defends breed-neutral approach

CALGARY — Reported dog bites surged nearly 50% last year in Calgary, according to new City of Calgary statistics, as the debate over whether pit bulls and other dangerous-dog breeds should be regulated has recently been reopened.The report prepared by Calgary’s Animal Aggression Team in March 2026, and reviewed by the Western Standard, shows the city recorded 262 confirmed dog bites in 2025, compared with 176 the previous year. Overall confirmed aggression incidents — including bites, chasing or threatening behaviour and damage to other animals — climbed to 599 in 2025, up from 411 in 2024..Earlier this month, the controversial debate over dangerous dog breeds reared its head once again when The Punisher actor Jon Bernthal — a pit bull owner — defended the breed on The Howard Stern Show earlier this month, saying fear of pit bulls is “dog racism.”"My dogs are the greatest. People have got to stop that. Pit bulls don't attack. It's just racism. It's dog racism," Bernthal said."To be afraid of a breed of dog is completely ridiculous. It's like being afraid of somebody for their race or their sexual orientation. If a pit bull bites you, it's going to suck, but they're no more likely to bite you than a Chihuahua or any other breed of dog.".Many people were quick to criticize the actor, citing statistics from animal advocacy and watchdog groups in the United Staes, such as DogBites.org, which alleges pit bulls have been involved in roughly 68% of all fatal dog attacks in the US.In Calgary, the data show the dog-bite rate climbed from 10.45 per 100,000 residents in 2024 to 15.52 per 100,000 in 2025 — the highest rate since 2018, with a significant number of last year’s incidents resulting in serious injury.Calgary recorded 48 Level 4 bites, which it describes as" tearing or slashing wounds" that often require enhanced medical treatment, including stitches and sometimes surgery.Another 13 attacks were classified as Level 5, meaning the dog bit multiple times and at least one bite caused a tearing or slashing wound that may require stitches.Combined, the 61 Level 4 and Level 5 incidents represented approximately 23% of all confirmed bites in 2025..In 2005, Ontario enacted a province-wide pit bull ban under the Dog Owners’ Liability Act, which generally prohibits owning, breeding, transferring or importing pit bulls, subject to grandfathering and other exceptions.However, there is no equivalent federal prohibition on the breed, and decisions regarding dangerous dog breeds have been left to the provincial and municipal levels.Calgary has long rejected breed-specific restrictions in favour of regulating individual animals and holding owners responsible for their behaviour.The city's Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw — implemented in 2006 — prohibits owners from allowing their animals to bite or chase people or other animals and gives officials the power to designate animals as vicious following severe injuries or other significant public-safety risks.Despite the renewed controversy surrounding pit bulls, the city’s report states that it “does not report on breed types because it has proven to be considerably unreliable.”The city defended its stance on regulating dogs according to behaviour rather than breed despite the increase in reported bites.“The City of Calgary's Responsible Pet Ownership model focuses on animal behaviour and owner accountability rather than breed,” a city spokesperson said..The analysis puts pit bulls within the terrier category, alongside breeds such as schnauzers and Jack Russell terriers.“[The] Terrier group is commonly categorized by high energy with strong prey drive. They were commonly bred for pest control, to flush out and hunt rodents,” the report reads.Terriers accounted for 17% of all dog bites in Calgary in 2025, while herding dogs (such as shepherds and collies) accounted for 28% and working dogs (such as Malamutes and Great Pyrenees) accounted for approximately 26%.For the most serious attacks, working-group dogs accounted for 34% of Calgary's Level 4 and Level 5 bites in 2025.Although Calgary does not publicly report individual breed statistics, the city confirmed to the Western Standard that Animal Services continues to collect breed or suspected breed-mix information.That information is collected as part of the licensing process alongside identifying details such as a dog's age, sex, colour and microchip information.However, the city said the prevalence of mixed-breed dogs means breed identification cannot always be confirmed with confidence, leading Calgary to publicly report incidents according to broader breed groups instead.Asked what caused the nearly 50% increase in confirmed bites last year, the city pointed to several possible factors rather than a single cause.“The increase in confirmed dog bites is likely due to a combination of factors, including Calgary's growing population and dog ownership rates, as well as increased awareness and reporting of incidents,” the city said, adding that its Aggression Team works “proactively with owners and dogs that have been involved in repeated incidents, providing education, recommendations, and management strategies aimed at preventing more serious incidents.”.Dog attack kills 14-day-old infant in Entwistle.Dr. Anneliese Heinrich, a board-certified veterinary behaviourist with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), told the Western Standard that, overall, breed bans remain “largely ineffective at reducing the number and severity of dog bites.”When asked about Bernthal’s comparison between pit bulls and Chihuahuas, Heinrich said “any dog can bite,” but genetics, environment and a dog's individual experiences all influence the likelihood of a bite.“Every study on dog bite statistics gives a different answer with respect to the most common breed inflicting bites. Typically the breeds overrepresented in bites are those that are most common in the general population in the region being studied,” she said.“I see aggressive dogs almost every day and they are all shapes and sizes. I don't think I could guess the most common breed I see. It wouldn't be 'pit bulls'. It would probably be mixed breed dogs, which includes all the doodles."However, other veterinary behaviour experts, such as Katherine Houpt, professor emerita of behavioural medicine at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, have placed greater emphasis on the role genetics and breed can play in aggression."Different breeds have genetic predispositions to certain kinds of behavior, though that can be influenced by how they are raised,” she said.“The pit bull is an innately aggressive breed, often owned by someone who wants an aggressive dog, so they're going to encourage it."Heinrich also acknowledged that the size of a dog can affect the potential consequences of an attack, saying the bite force of a breed such as the Cane Corso is “highly concerning,” but that she had also seen “Corgis put people in the hospital” and remains unconvinced that breed bans are the solution for preventing or reducing injury..Dangerous dogs attack residents, pets in small Sask town.“A large chunk of the pet dog population is made up of mixed-breed dogs anyway,” she stated, adding that the majority of bites go unreported, meaning Calgary's large increase could partly represent an increase in reporting rather than an equivalent increase in actual attacks.“Responsible ownership, responsible breeding, and responsible behaviour on the part of rescues/shelters adopting out dogs are better targets for legislation in my opinion than breed bans.”Heinrich’s position is also shared by the Calgary Humane Society (CHS), which states that it opposes labelling any specific breed as “inherently aggressive, vicious, or dangerous.”The organization also maintains that breed alone is not a reliable predictor of aggression, saying temperament and aggressive behaviour result from a combination of genetics and breeding, training and socialization, health, reproductive status and the treatment an animal receives.Owner responsibility still appears to be one of the major concerns regarding dangerous dog breeds..UPDATED: Copping requests results of AHS review of lengthy EMS response to fatal dog attack in Calgary.In 2024, victims of two separate dog attacks in Calgary publicly called for owners to face greater accountability following violent incidents.In one incident, a woman and her Chihuahua were injured after being attacked by two terrier-type dogs in the northeast community of Thorncliffe.In that case, the owner faced six fines and transferred ownership of one dog to the city, while officials sought a vicious-dog designation for another dog that had been returned to the owner's custody.Responsible ownership was also addressed in the wake of Bernthal’s comments by American dog trainer Stonnie Dennis, who said that the genetics and historical purposes of pit bulls and other “big square-headed dogs” cannot be ignored..“All [these breeds] have at some point in their origin story, ancestors who were bred to fight other dogs, or fight game animals or engage in some other type of exhibitionary violence,” Dennis said.“It is the breed, it might not be the specific breed that follows the bloodlines as they’re outlined in the breed registries but it's the type, and we all know the type. It’s like the Supreme Court talking about pornography, you know it when you see it. I know a pit bull mix when I see them.”Dennis also rejected the argument that raising and training a large, powerful dog properly eliminates the possibility of a serious or deadly attack..Calgary’s data found that 74% of bites occurred while the dog was under the direct control of an owner, including 26% where the animal was on a leash, with children under 12, adults aged 30 to 39 and people over 60 consistently ranking among the city’s leading victim groups over the past three years.“People who get a dog like this will go, if you train it right and you raise it right, it won’t do that kind of stuff. That’s not necessarily true,” he said, adding that a lot of owners “don’t do that good of a job training them.”“You just have to accept the fact that people don’t need to have this kind of dog really because most of the time they’re not going to learn to train them right and a lot of the time they’re just going to literally lack the physical capacity to manage the dog... For normal types of people, these types of dogs are very dangerous... and it's not fair to externalize that type of risk onto your neighbours.”While the debate over pit bulls and other dangerous dog breeds will likely continue, Calgary’s own 2025 numbers do not establish that banning certain dog breeds would have prevented the increase in recorded bites and attacks, but they do bring into focus whether governing bodies should focus primarily on individual behaviour and owner responsibility, or whether a dog’s breed and size should factor more heavily into local municipal legislation.

IN-DEPTH: Calgary dog bites jump nearly 50% as city defends breed-neutral approach

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