Lawyer wants top court to hear pit-bull ban case

TORONTO - The lawyer for a pit-bull owner who's been fighting Ontario's ban on the dogs wants to take the battle to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Civil rights lawyer Clayton Ruby has filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of Toronto dog owner Catherine Cochrane.

He wants a review of an Appeal Court decision last October that upholds the province's ban.

The Appeal Court concluded pit bulls are dangerous and unpredictable dogs that have the potential to attack without warning.

But Ruby says the court failed to focus on whether the law was too broad and was also wrong in upholding a provision that allows veterinarians to determine whether the dog is in fact a pit bull.

He says that provision unfairly reverses the presumption of innocence.

The Ontario government enacted the Dog Owners' Liability Act in 2005 to ban the breeding, sale and ownership of pit bulls after several incidents in which the dogs attacked people.

Ruby had been considering an appeal to the Supreme Court after the October ruling stated the ban on the breed does not violate any constitutional rights.