Breed-specific Legislation
Breed-specific legislation is the banning or restriction of dogs considered “dangerous” breeds, such as pit bull breeds, in order to stop dog attacks. “Inherently dangerous” implies that all pit bulls are, through genetics or their environment, born with a vicious streak; the science does not support this. Legislation targeting specific breeds does not work because dog attacks result from multiple factors, not just a simple breakdown of breed culpability. Studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the National Canine Research Council, as well as independent researchers, all agree that BSL is not productive. Breed-specific legislation is stereotypical, and stereotypes are not considered desirable dimensions of our decision-making processes. To discriminate against a dog based on breed is no less ludicrous than discriminating against a person based on race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation. Statistics prove that pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other dog; the media portrays a warped image of this beautiful breed. The sensationalism is not based on the breed’s inherent temperament, but rather the fears associated with the consequences of some abusive owners.
Breed-specific legislation should be repealed. According to the Centers for Disease Control, this legislation is largely ineffective and a waste of public resources. A community-based approach should be used, including education, enforcement, spaying, and neutering, in order to combat this problem.
Most pit bulls don’t attack people; they just fall under a stereotype that says they’re born mean and vicious, and therefore, should be removed from society. Dobermans, Great D...
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Herkstroeter, Carl. "ATTS Breed Statistics." American Temperament Test Society, Inc. American Temperament Test Society, Inc., 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
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Lederman, Dan. "Breed-Specific Legislation." Breed-Specific Legislation. American Humane Association, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
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Their family-friendly reputation changed “around 1976, when animal-fighting venues were added to the Animal Welfare Act, according to Donald Cleary of the National Canine Research Council. Pits—often trained as combatants—came to be seen as dangerous. Throughout the next two decades, stories about vicious pits mauling innocent children appeared in news outlets across the country” (Tullis 3). Interestingly enough, pit bulls were not always the breed under fire by society. In the 1800’s, bite reports by bloodhounds, which were often used to hunt down escaped slaves, flooded the Northeastern newspapers.
After the 30th of November 1991, it is an offence to have specially controlled dogs unless it is being held as the result of seizure or destruction. However there is an exemption scheme which lets owners keep the controlled dogs as long as they inform police that the dog has been neutered or spayed and can be identified permanently and as long as there is an insurance plan in place, a fee has been paid and then a certificate of exemption will be issued. Many of the first attacks were from Rottweiler’s and then pit bulls and the Act was speedily passed, some say it being passed so fast has made the draft deprived.
Breed-specific legislation is a broad term that includes laws that ban or restrict the type of dog a person can own. Bree- specific legislation, or BSL for short, is often described as something that protects people or makes the world a safer place. In reality, there are many issues with this type of legislation. The whole premise of BSL is based off of misconceptions, it punishes innocent people and animals, and it does not ultimately lower the amount of people bitten each year where it is implemented. These laws are discriminatory, unjust, and unproductive.
...ociated Press published an article “Pit Bulls are A Danger to Society,” yet this year, the same publisher issued an article “Attitudes and Laws Against the Pit Bull Soften – The Big Story” in which the Pit bull advocates hail the changes as recognition that breed-specific laws discriminate against dogs that are not inherently aggressive or dangerous should not be discriminated against or victimized. The debate puts millions of pit bull owners up against a relatively small group of activists against the breed and challenges the notion that Pit Bulls that are well-cared for had any history of aggressive behavior in the first place, closing the argument by again stating what the Canadian Encyclopedia explained, that their actions were just a park of the cycle of favorites and least favorites that has always been and always will be in the history of ownership of dogs.
Campbell, Dana M. "Pit Bull Bans: The State Of Breed-Specific Legislation." Gpsolo 26.5 (2009): 36-41. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
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It is the bad owners that give the pit bull a bad name. Contrary to that popular belief, dangerous animal behavior is the function of inherently dangerous dog owners, not inherently dangerous dogs. One fact that supports this is that pit bulls are the dogs most often shot during drug raids(TELLINGS v. Toledo). Besides the pit bulls that are owned by drug dealers for status symbols and protection, many pit bulls are owned by people that breed them for fighting. These poor dogs have a very slim chance of living a normal and happy life. This is not the fault of the dog, but the fault of the owners that should not have the dog, or should care for them better. The dogs that are forced to fight and are conditioned to defend themselves or die. When these dogs get loose, everything is a threat to them and they defend themselves in the name of survival. If golden retrievers were bred and raised with the sole purpose of fighting to the death, they would be just as dangerous as pit bulls. On the contrary, if all pit bulls were bred and treated as family dogs, they would have the same reputation as golden retrievers, if not better as the statistics found in the temperament test above
Thompson, Bill. “Residents not happy with new dog laws.” Ocala Star-Banner 15 Mar. 2010. Web. 12 Jun. 2010.
Smith, C. (2009, April 9). Media coverage of Surrey pit bull attack prompts protest by Vancouver pit bull owners. Retrieved April 20, 2011, from Straight.com: http://www.straight.com/article- 213929/media-coverage-surrey-pit-bull-attack-prompts-protest-vancouver-pit-bull-owners
An increasing number of pit bull attacks have occurred over past decade. People who are attacked by pit bulls always suffer serious injuries because of the pit bulls’ sharp teeth and strong muscles. In October 19, 2009, Dr Hugh Wirth who is the RSPCA’s Victorian president renewed calls for American pit bull terriers to be bred out of Australia. The current laws require owners of pit bulls to register their pit bull. While some people are satisfied with the laws because they think that they are safe, others disagree. From my own perspective, the laws should be improved. The government should ban these fierce dogs and wipe them out instead of just registering them. In my opinion, there are three reasons why I am in favour of Dr Wirth’s proposal.
b. “Many people have a difficult time properly identifying a true Pit Bull, so added to the statistics are those dogs that have been misidentified. Considering these factors, the actual number of attacks attributable to American Pit Bull Terriers is considerably lower than represented,” according to the real pit bull. i. Do you think a 4 pound Pomeranian dog would hurt anybody? ii. Stated in the Dog Bite Law, “The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family 's Pomeranian dog.” a. The American Temperament Test is a test that measures a dog strong avoidance, unprovoked aggression, and panic without recovery. “American Pit Bull Terriers passed the test at a rate of 85.3%,” according to Pitbulls.org. They have the highest test scores, and they out beat the golden retriever “family dog” by 7.7%. iii. I identify the justice of my rival’s claim, but I disagree with my rival’s 100 percent about pit bulls having the highest attacks. c. Now you can see how my rival made a mistake because they didn’t evaluate and understood the facts as clearly as they
On June 20, Charlotte Alter posted an article on TIME website titled, “The Problem with Pit Bulls”. In her article she starts with an event that happened to a three year old little girl that was attacked by three Pit Bulls. The little girl and her family were in KFC and one of the employees asked her to leave because her face was “disrupting their customers”. Half of the little girl’s face is now paralyzed and she has also lost her vision in one of her eyes because of the three Pit Bulls that attacked her. Her grandfather killed the three Pit bulls that attacked her; however her grandfather is now facing charges of child-endangerment. KFC was so generous to donated money to the family to help with her medical bills. But yet the rant is more
Whilst many breeders argue they are upholding the true beauty of their beloved breed, they are in reality the sole cause to their very downfall by abuse. The demand for specific breeds leads to increased inbreeding therefore causing additional genetic mutations which in turn compromise or destroy the integrity of the breed they were trying to enhance. By breeding beauty and trademarks features in, health and wellbeing are being bred out. Now a billion dollar industry, using innocent dogs to achieve social status and financial gain, simply proliferates the repeated cruelty and neglected which results in continued abuse on all purebred dogs. To allow and even praise repeated, long tern inbreeding that knowingly results in painful, crippling diseases all for the purpose of profit and prestige is abuse by
[Establish credibility] As a life-long dog lover, I have run into BSL many times: from apartments with dog size limitations to cities that outright ban certain breeds.
Currently, pit bulls have been reported by the media with very horrific and disturbing news of having attacked a child or being shot by a police due to aggression while some are reported to have been abused or neglected by its owners (Forderer and Unkelbach 534). And because the reports keep coming with heated discussions, more and more people have forged a frightening image of pit bulls even to the extreme of refusing to take care of such breed. Pit bull advocates claim that the dogs get a bad reputation considering that people should learn the dogs are not inherently aggressive. What the pit bull advocates would like to point is that the owners of the pit bulls should be considered guilty for mishandling of their own dogs. There are owners of pit bulls that even encourage the dog to be aggressive in order to fight and protect them in a wrong manner and wrong degree of training (Forderer and Unkelbach 536). Pit bull advocates claimed that a well socialized and well trained pit bull would be very intelligent and could be one of the gentle dogs imaginable.