Dog Breed Specific Legislation

Breed specific legislation, or BSL, refers to laws in cities, counties, or states that restrict or make illegal the ownership of a particular breed or breeds of dogs, based only on the fact that any individual family pet happens to be that breed.

There are many different races of people, but isn't it considered unconstitutional to discriminate against someone based on their race? If someone tried to implement a type of BSL in regards to homo sapiens instead of canines, we'd be in a world of trouble.

Dog owners, even if they don't currently own any of the breeds that are demonized by the proponents of breed specific legislation, should be outraged. After all, YOUR dog could be next. Many of the smaller dog breeds are known for their nippiness, as being "ankle-biters", but should we outlaw the Pomeranian, the Chihuahua, and all those toy and teacup breeds that these Paris-Hilton-wannabes are so fond of? My Nana had a Pekingese named Bootsy that was the terror of all the neighborhood kids, nearly every one of us had felt that little beast's teeth, but would it be fair to round up and euthanize every Pekingese in Wayne County, MI, on the basis that Bootsy didn't like kids? Of course not!

BSL does nothing to solve the problem of bad owners raising bad dogs. It is one of those lame "zero-tolerance" laws, one that neither addresses the problem nor works to find solutions. Black-and-white are colors, and should not be applied to any sort of policy. It's the same head-in-the-sand approach that puts hundreds of casual pot-smokers in jail alongside murderers and child molesters.

Educate dog owners on being responsible for training and supervising their animals. Instead of wasting money on enacting and trying to enforce ridiculous laws, use the money to set up low-cost dog obedience classes. Punish the deed, not the breed, and make the punishment fit the crime. If a police officer is bitten by a drug dealer's dog while making an arrest, in what bizarre alternate-universe logic do you come up with a "solution" of banning THAT BREED of dog from the county? Why not ban drug dealers? Oh yeah, we do, but there's money to be made (on both sides), and the dogs are neither brought to court, nor can they afford expensive trial lawyers in their defense.

The actual "bad dogs" that our idiotic justice system are discriminationg against are the ones owned by thugs and criminals, individuals that mistreat the dogs and train them to be vicious. When we have breed specific legislation in place, it's the responsible, law-abiding dog owners, and their well-trained, friendly pets, that pay the price: the extra insurance, the heavy-duty fencing, the registration as "dangerous" dogs, even if our pet is more likely to show a burglar the stereo equipment than chew their throat out.

The Humane Society of America has publicly maintained that there isn't one specific breed of dog that is more dangerous than another, outside of size differences. Obviously a poorly-trained Rottweiler is going to cause more damage than a bad-tempered Daschund. The Humane Society of the United States' president, Dr. Lockwood, has gone on record to say that while fatal dog attacks are rare, they unfortunately underline the need for owners to properly raise, train, socialize, and supervise their animals.

Let's take a breed from the top of any BSL "bad dog" list, the pit bull. In the legal sense, the term "pit bull" encompasses the American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT), the Staffordshire Terrier ("Staffie"), the American Staffordshire Terrier ("AmStaff"), and the Bull Terrier. These four breeds have a similar build and look, except the Bull Terrier, the "Spuds McKenzie" dog from the old Bud Light commercials. Anyway, these dogs kill, on average, three people per year. Cigarettes kill over 400,000 people every year, car crashes another 42,000. Are cars and cigarettes illegal? No: we warn people that smoking is bad for their health, and we punish the people that cause accidents or disobey traffic laws meant to keep people safe.

Many places are getting away with breed specific legislation, including Denver, Boston, and Miami. Miami-Dade County has seven pages of legislation relating to dangerous dogs, and they've specifically targeted pit bulls. I can't cite exact wording or statutes: this information was given me by a Wilton Manors motorcycle cop (Hi, Dave!) who I'd stop and talk to on occasion (we both like motorcycles and dogs). But the wording in the statute says that it is illegal to own any dog that "conforms to the pit bill standard", unless it was registered in the county before 1989 (not easy finding an 18-year old dog of ANY breed).

Being from Fort Lauderdale, which is in the county just north of Miami-Dade, I have two beautiful adopted pit bulls. One is obviously a purebred APBT as I've seen dozens of "her" picture in numerous books relating to the breed. My other little girl is more of a mixed breed, but close enough that if she was picked up as a stray in Miami-Dade county instead of Broward, she would have been executed immediately. No crime, no defense, no trial.

While some people are rather intimidated when I'm walking my dogs down the street, more often they'll tell me how beautiful these pups are, and stop for a pet. Not every pit bull is as sweet as mine, as is true with any breed of dog. Always ask the owner if it's alright before you get close to a strange dog, regardless of the breed or the size.