'My heart dropped': Vaughan sending away family dog after pit bull DNA test

Harvard bioethicist slams city for relying on flawed test to move Gamboa outside of province

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 9, 2020
Jeremy Grimaldi

The City of Vaughan has a fight on its hands.

Not only are lawyers involved in its recent decision to send a dog it suspects is a pit bull out of province, but protests are being planned and now, a Harvard professor is speaking out against the decision.

It comes after the city’s animal services unit released a statement to yorkregion.com suggesting the dog in question, named Gamboa, a Labrador-mix according to his owner, is in fact part pit bull, according to a DNA test.

“A recent DNA test has definitively confirmed that Gamboa is a banned breed,” wrote a spokesperson for the City of Vaughan in a recent email.

But many, including Harvard Medical School bioethicist Lisa Moses, believe DNA tests for K9s are notoriously flawed for a number of reasons, including inaccuracy.

“They better be really careful with the language in the statute and whether it’s defensible, because the tests are not a certainty in the way that something like a paternity test is,” she told yorkregion.com from her Boston area home. “It’s not uncommon for people to do tests with different companies and receive different results.”

Gamboa’s owner, Natalia Ramirez, 22, said she’s already spent $5,000 in her bid to get Gamboa back, but doesn’t plan on backing down against the city, which picked up the dog after he escaped from under his home’s fence on July 20.

“My heart dropped,” Natalia said when she got the letter announcing VAS’s decision. “I feel like now I will have to move my whole world to another province. It’s unfair and shouldn’t have to be like this.”

Vaughan Animal Services has been unwavering, though, refusing to allow Natalia to see the dog, provide him with toys, his bed or even listen to the breed experts who have written letters certifying that Gamboa is not a pit bull.

Moses said the problem with the decision could be problematic for many reasons, including that the “pit bull breed” does not exist in the way others, including German Shepherds, do.

“Pit bull is an umbrella term; it’s not a breed in the pure sense,” she said. “(Pit bulls do not have) defined lineage and you don’t have a gold standard to compare to.”

She noted that around North America, many of the municipalities with pit bull bans in place have disposed of the laws because of legal challenges and their inherent ambiguity.

“I don’t think they should be using the results of this test to determine eligibility,” she added.

Lynn Perrier, who originally started a petition to free Gamboa and two other dogs, Ringo and Kilo, who have since been returned to their families, believes more public awareness and attention will help.

“They are going to fight this,” said the founder of RAAW (Reform Advocates for Animal Welfare), before saying she’s looking at organizing a protest of Vaughan’s actions.

Perrier said it’s important to remember that the publicly funded VAS actually makes money by collecting dogs, saying at $49 a night, Natalia’s family already owes another $5,200 for his care.