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Homeward Bound's Opinion Regarding Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL)
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Recently, Rep. John Lesch (DFL -St.Paul) announced a proposal for a state ban on the ownership of Akitas, Chow Chows, Rottweilers, wolf hybrids, Pit Bulls, or mixed-breed dogs with the traits of any of these breeds. He plans to present his legislation at the opening of the next session. Ownership of any of the breeds in question would be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Homeward Bound opposes breed bans and all breed-specific legislation (BSL). We do, however, support responsible dog ownership in all of its forms. We firmly believe that the problem behaviors apparent in certain dogs (NOT certain breeds) may be directly correlated with human issues such as poor (or no) training, abuse, negligence and poor (or no) breeding standards. As a result, Homeward Bound would certainly be open to legislation that would increase accountability by owners and their breeders. Killing hundreds of innocent animals to pay for the actions of a few poorly trained and uncontrolled dogs may be directly compared to the logic that would destroy all cars because some individuals cause accidents. Do we ban cars? No. Do we enforce penalties on those whose car usage causes injury to others? Absolutely. We believe a similar approach would be significantly more effective than BSL to reduce animal-related injuries. In addition to the general inadvisability of BSL, we would like to point out that "Pit Bull" is not an official breed, but is a common term used to describe a certain type of dog, which is placed in a ring or "pit" and forced to fight another dog for sport. Typically, "Pit Bulls" refer to three breeds, when the term is used by the general public: American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) - recognized by the ADBA and UKC; American Staffordshire Terrier (AST) - recognized by the AKC; and Staffordshire Bull Terrier (SBT) - recognized by the AKC and UKC. These three breeds are essentially the same dogs but have been bred for a different reason and/or size standard since the mid 1930's. How do we tell the difference among the breeds? Often we can't. We try to guess the breed based on subtle characteristics. It should be noted that even experts cannot always tell if a dog is and APBT, AST, or STB! BSL legislation like the proposal announced by Rep. Lesch could condemn thousands of dogs to death for physical characteristics only. It should be noted that Homeward Bound does not exclude any of these breeds from its rescue program, and categorically opposes dog fighting in any of its forms. The press release issued by the Minnesota House of Representatives (www.house.leg.state.mn.us /members/pressreleasels85.asp ?district=66A&pressid= 2696"party=1) for the full text) implies that Rep. John Lesch's recently proposed breed ban is based on a CDC report from 2000, which "identified these breeds as some of the most dangerous, accounting for over half the dog bit related deaths between 1979 and 1998." If this report truly was the basis for Rep. Lesch's proposal, he may want to read the entire report, which can be found at http://0-www.cdc.gov. mill1.sjlibrary.org/ncipc /duip/dogbreeds.pdf. This report details available breed information for 227 dog-bite related fatalities for the 20-year period from 1979 through 1998. Table 2 of this report details the estimated breed of the 284 dogs involved in these deaths. While it is true that the tally of dogs involved in these deaths for the breeds Rep. Lesch has selected for his ban does account for over 50% of the 284 dogs involved (76 pit-bull type, 44 Rottweiler, 14 Wolf-dog hybrid, 11 Chow Chow, and 4 Akita, totaling 149 dogs), it is interesting that these 5 "breeds", whether purebred or crossbred, are not the 5 breeds with the highest counts of dogs involved in dog bite fatalities during the period. What is interesting about the data is that German Shepherd Dogs accounted for 27 deaths, with Husky-type and Siberian Husky dogs together implicated in 36 deaths, both groups much larger than the counts of Wolf-Hybrids, Chow Chows and Akitas. In fact, even Labrador Retrievers were implicated in 5 deaths, more than the 4 attributed to Akitas. These statistics seem to indicate that the logic used by Rep. Lesch when picking the breeds to be covered by his ban is faulty at best. Let's be clear: the argument here is not that the top 5 breeds in this report should be the ones banned - as mentioned before, Homeward Bound opposes all breed-specific legislation - but that those who compiled the list appear to have an agenda that is based on something other than the "hard data" quoted in their public materials. Most telling is the following quote, which is taken directly from the CDC report: Because of difficulties inherent in determining a dog's breed with certainty, enforcement of breed-specific ordinances raises constitutional and practical issues. Fatal attacks represent a small proportion of dog bite injuries to humans and, therefore, should not be the primary factor driving public policy concerning dangerous dogs. Many practical alternatives to breed-specific ordinances exist and hold promise for the prevention of dog bites. If the article on which legislation is based specifically states that it should not be used as a public policy driver,
perhaps the legislation needs to be reconsidered.
Source - "Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998", JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000. PLEASE HELP! There are several things you can personally do to assist our efforts to prevent the introduction of this legislation:
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN THIS EFFORT! |
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