EVERYONE loves a
warm, fuzzy doggie
story.

Well, this particular dog-
gie story may well leave vou
wondering what has gone
wrong with the purveyors of
justice in our litde corner of
paradise.

Paul Bittente has lived in
his North Vancouver City
home for the past four vears
with his family and the family
pet, a German Shepherd,
who doubles as a watchdog.
The dog was getting on in
years and losing his effective-
ness in this role. The
§ Bittentes got another shep-
| herd pup to replace the older

after it shuffled off this mor-
tal coil.

Last January, Bittente
received a letter from the city
bylaw enforcement people
requesting he call them to
discuss a complaint of his
dog’s barking. Bittente dealt
with the matter and tiiought
all was fine until he received a
second letter in February.

. In dealing with the second
complaint, from the same
person, a neighbor nwo doors
down in a basement suite, he
suggested the bylaw staff talk
to his neighbors to sec if they

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crime and
punishment

also thought the dog was a
nuisance.

He thought che problem
had been handled and didn's
think much more about it
until he received 2 summons
alleging three counts of vie-
lating the noise bylaw,

Bittente disagreed with
the allegations, feeling his
dogs were trained to be
watchdogs and barked only
when someone came in prox-
imity to his house and prop-
erty, Lee’s bear in mind that
dogs are allowed to bark. It is
only incessant barking which
should bring someone afoul
of the law. He disputed the
allegations and a trial date
was set for Nov. 19.

He showed up for what he
thought would be a bylaw
hearing, much like a traffic
ticket, only to find out the
matter had been set for the
whole day and an ad hoc

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Crown appointed to prose
cure fhe natter,

Prior to his case bemy,
called, a matter of a break
and enter in Wos: Vae conver
was added to the court list
because the suspect was being
held in custody.

The accused in that mat-
ter, a Maple Ridge female
with a criminal history, plead-
ed guilty to the BRE and was
sentenced to a $100 fine and
yet another term of proba-
tion.

Several of Bitrente’s
neighbors showed up, on
their own time, to give evi-
dence saying the dogs were
not a nuisance. Equaily, there
were, Pm told, three witness-
es for the prosecution saying
they had been disturbed by
the dogs.

One of whom was abo
disturbed by a couple of
other neighborhood dogs
and 3 neighbor on the other
side whose Land Rover
apparently annoyed her when
the man warmed it up on
cold winter mornings. One
presumes her upstairs neigh-
bors didn’t have a coffee
grinder.

Without going into the

merits of the trial or whether
Bittente should have been
charged in the first place, he
was subsequently found
stoke under the bylaw and
fined 5300.

Yes, that’s correct.

In Judge Walker's court, if

you break into a house it lt
cost vou S100. Bat if vou
have a dog to protect your
house trom that same scum-
bag, it’s three times the
amount.

[cried to contact the city
bylaw enforcement ofticer,
Barbara Warrick, to ask about
this case and was informed by
the vaice mail system, “there
are technical problems with
this phone so vou cannot
reach me.” To be fair, the
message did leave a cellular
number for urgent matters.

OK, so it wasn’t urgent,
but [called it anyway. Didn’r
matter, it was turned off.

Next, [ cailed James
Goulden, the ad hoe prosecu-
tor in the matter, a lawyer
with the large downtown
firm, Bull, Housser &
Tupper. Goulden told me
regular Crown prosceutors
won't do bylaw offences so
the municipalities have to

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hire outside lawyers at their
cost. He said it was necessary
in order to “have teeth in the
bylaws to ensure infractions
were prosecuted.”

Pm reasonably certain he
did not mean that as a pun.

nin North Van court

I then spoke to Bitrente’s
closest neighbor, A nice
English gent in his carly 70s,
who has lived in the neigh-
borhood tor 10 years. Ernie

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