#breed specific legislation

[dog-wings]

DogNews: Prince George's County, Maryland lifts ban on Pit Bulls from 1997, stating that it's "not working."

The updated legislation will involve updating leash laws for all dogs, as well as raising penalties for dangerous dog owners. This will be based on the dog's actual behavior, rather than breed/appearance.

"This legislation holds irresponsible dog owners accountable, ensuring that the focus remains on behavior, not breed."

Now, owners of "pitbull" labeled dogs will be able to walk their pets just like anyone else, shelters will be able to adopt them out more effectively, and hopefully, perfectly adoptable dogs won't be euthanized simply for how they look so frequently.

[sacredslaycd]

I don't often make posts like this but this is a heartfelt plea for help with the uks current political situation regarding XL Bullies and the dangerous dog act. Anyone who lives in the UK will be more than aware of the draconian law that is Breed Specific Legislation and you will also be aware that as of yesterday, XL Bullies were added to this list. I want to start out by saying my heart goes out to the families of the victims of these horrific dog attacks.

All of the dog welfare charities within the UK have put out the following statement:

'The biggest priority for everyone involved is to protect the public - but banning the breed will sadly not stop these types of incidents recurring.

For 32 years, the Dangerous Dogs Act has focused on banning types of dog and yet has coincided with an increase in dog bites and the recent deaths show that this approach isn’t working. The UK Government must tackle the root issue by dealing with the unscrupulous breeders, who are putting profit before welfare, and the irresponsible owners whose dogs are dangerously out of control. '

The fact of the matter is, Breed Specific Legislation does not work. Bite rates have increased over 100% since the legislation has been introduced. Hundreds of innocent dogs have been destroyed for nothing more than how they look. And the same is going to happen again. While there may be some kind of exemption process for current XL Bullies living in the UK, we simply don't know and since part of this law is it being illegal to sell, breed or re-home one of these dogs, what happens to the hundreds in rescue centers all over the country? They're likely to be euthanized once this law comes into effect.

Those who aren't exempt risk being seized and this can be months or years in police kennels until there's an exemption hearing and dogs have been known to die in police care before it can go to court and often come home malnourished and traumatized.

What we need is stricter legislation on Dog Ownership, better laws regarding breeding to put an end to backward breeding and breeding dogs with poor genetics with little regard to the health of the animals. If you're in the UK please consider signing this petition to appeal the ban. If you're not from the UK then please please share so your UK friends can.

It already has a lot of signatures but the more we get the more we show the government people are serious about this: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/643611?fbclid=IwAR29OJVfR5GPpxTeMrw7bMw17viZ-V84167g0565PQPYFZFIQo1IF92uwv4

[vet-and-wild]

Banned Breeds and BSL Safety

This is why you don’t play games with banned breeds in BSL areas. These dogs were lucky because they’re alive and the owner got them back, but this story often has a much sadder ending. And even though the dogs were returned to their owner, they were kept for 8 months. 8 months of confiscation because someone brought a pair of “American bullies” into an area with a pit bull ban. Let me reiterate how lucky these dogs are. They got moved from a kennel to a foster home, and they were returned to their owner. That often does not happen in these cases. This is why it’s complete bullshit to just say “oh well they’re not technically the breed that is banned so it’s fine!” This is why you don’t lie about your dog’s breed. This is why it’s not just “being paranoid” to give a shit about if a breed is legal in your area. It’s easy to say that your dogs would never be loose or never bite or cause trouble, but shit happens. Do you think these people expected their dogs to be wandering around? No, of course not. Accidents happen. Bringing a banned breed into a restricted area is literally playing with your dog’s life.

Something you need to understand is that BSL generally relies on phenotypic identification. A DNA test may be done secondarily, but dogs can and are seized based on phenotype. So yeah, they may be returned to you after a DNA test, but how long were they confiscated in the meantime? What sort of fees are you paying to cover their confiscation and testing? That’s why bulldog mixes, husky mixes, etc have been confiscated; visual breed ID is quite inaccurate even amongst professionals. You need to understand your local, state, county, etc laws if you are going to get a breed that is commonly banned. And if your answer is “I didn’t know my breed was commonly banned!” then you didn’t do enough research. Whether or not the dog is in your possession, that is the unfortunate truth. (ofc having a mixed breed that gets misidentified as one of these breeds/not knowing a mixed breed’s makeup is not the same thing...to an extent. Come on. We all know the stocky, block-headed terrier is gonna get labeled as a pit bull so don’t be dumb). And having club recognition or a breed name or a pedigree does NOT automatically prevent dogs from being victims of BSL.

So what do you do? Well first off, find out if you live in a BSL area. Start at the state level but don’t forget to check county and city too. For example, I used to live in a state that wolfdog ownership was legal but it was banned in the city I was in. If you’re not sure, you can reach out. And if you feel that your breed could be targeted but doesn’t actually fit the criteria, reach out to the governing authority. It’s annoying and takes time but it’s worth it. I thought I’d be living in a wolfdog banned state when considering a CsV so I reached out to the state ag board. Turns out that a handful of other breeders/prospective owners of this breed had reached out too and guess what? CsV got officially exempt from their wolfdog ban. (They should be because they’re an established DOG breed but they do have recent wolf ancestry so this was a huge win). I did this in the city I was living in, as well as my current state (which doesn’t have a wolfdog ban but has a couple restrictions) and got responses within a few weeks. I’ve got documentation from local/state governments that my (future) dog is exempt from bans in those areas. It took a few hours of research and phone calls/emails, which sucked, but it’s worth it to potentially save my dog’s life. If that’s too much work, don’t get the dog. Also don’t buy from a breeder that tells you to lie about the dog’s breed or says that it’s fine because the local authorities won’t check/won’t enforce it. You really wanna bet your dog’s life on that? No reputable breeder would. Keep your dog microchipped, wearing a collar and tag, and registered per state/local requirements. It also helps to make sure you have easy access to any pedigree, DNA, or club registration info.

For the record, this is a (not exhaustive list) of breeds that can be or often are lumped into breed bans (or could be targeted by them). Some are straight up banned, others get targeted because of looking like a banned breed. Mixes of these breeds can be lumped in as well.

--Bully/molosser breeds: APBTs, AmStaffs, staffies, bull/miniature bull terriers, American bullies, American bulldogs, Dogo Argentino, presa canarios, cane corso, really most mastiffs tbh

--Wolfy/wolfdog breeds: American wolfdogs, American blue bay shepherds/bourbon shepherds, tamaskans, CsV, Saarloos. Husky and malamute mixes or breeds such as Northern Inuits could easily be mistaken too.

Akitas, GSD, rotties, and dobies are other common banned breeds.

Ultimately, BSL sucks and is not even effective. But as long as it remains in place it is the OWNER’S responsibility to do their research and keep their dog safe. Non-banned dogs can and do get targeted and absolutely it is not someone’s fault for daring to own a husky mix in a wolfdog banned area. But purposefully purchasing a designer wolfdog breed (*cough* ABBS) or bully breed (*cough* American bully) and bringing them into a banned area? Stupid and irresponsible. When a “breed” (honestly some of these are barely a breed anyway) has banned breeds as a foundation, they’re generally consider mixes of the banned breed and not their own entity. Hence why ABBS/tamaskan = wolfdog and American bully = pit bull in these scenarios. Just because they have a name and a breed standard does NOT mean they are recognized as separate from the banned breed. I really REALLY need people to understand that and to stop saying that “educating” law enforcement or the public about your dog’s “breed” is enough protection for a banned breed in a BSL area.

[banpitbulls]

Atlanta mom has arm sewn to stomach in desperate attempt to save it after pitbull attack

"Like it looks like she got attacked by a shark," her daughter said.

[pro-exotics]

Exotic pet bans translated to Breed Specific Legislation:

“Well some people’s Rottweilers on the other side of the country killed people, so you are no longer allowed to own a Pomeranian”

[drferox]

It finally happened.

There has been a bunch of stories in the Australian media lately about dog bites, because there have been a cluster of incidents of dogs mauling or even killing humans. And just recently we had a client phone and complain to the practice owner because we’d had a pitbull in our waiting room  and they feared for their safety. Because, and I quote, “They kill people, don’t you know.”

This particular dog I recalled well. It wasn’t very bright, had all the momentum of a cannonball and was doing the fairly typical, incessant ‘Staffy Scream Song’ that you will never forget once you’ve heard it. Dog was a boofhead, not a menace.

Funnily enough, this sort of complaint is a highly effective way to tick off every single member of staff at a vet clinic, all at the same time.

I’d noticed the media has been particularly bad about their reporting this time around. Specifically, even when the article is about a dog attack incident involving some random breed, a Doberman cross in this case, the third sentence in the report mentioned American Stafford dogs, which weren’t involved in the case at all. Yet, now if somebody searched for American Stafford and Dog Attack, that article would come up, and the general public will associate the two together.

Honestly I am all for restrictions on dangerous dogs, but that should always be judged on a ‘deed not breed’ basis, and if we think a dog is potentially dangerous we certainly don’t leave it in the waiting room! We organise our whole day around making sure they can be handled and sedated safely.

The media loves to have a villain, and the media changes how people view the world. The average member of the general public wouldn’t be able to identify the difference between a pitbull, an American Stafford, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a large Labrador Cross, an American Bulldog, a Boxer cross, a Bull arab or a Bull Mastiff. But when you train the public to think it’s ‘pit bulls’ (Or AmStaffs, or whatever else) always associated with dog attacks, that’s what they’re more likely to identify any dog in that situation as.

And instead of learning about dog body language, training, and how to avoid bites, people just assume other dog breeds are safe, and that helps nobody.

[atarahderek]

Breed discrimination is ableism.

[ahundredhundredheartbeats]

The Racist Story Behind the Pit Bull’s Fall from American Icon to Demon Dog

Daniel Rivero, May 2016

Dickey says upper-class white people couldn’t believe the barbarity of the people who owned what they believed to be fighting dogs, and they projected these views onto the dogs themselves. Self-styled pit bull “experts” started offering the media quotes about how the dogs have a “will to kill” that's unrivaled in the natural world.

"This is a dog in name only," yelled a column in the Los Angeles Times. Similar reports all but linked the dogs to the crack epidemic that was sweeping inner cities and scaring white people.

In fact, Dickey notes, when you look at the words “pit bull” and “crack cocaine” in the Google Ngram Viewer, which tracks word usage in literature over time, you can see the two terms picked up in usage around the same time in the late 1980s. Here’s the chart: