Why Breed Bans Won't Work

With all the breed ban legislation going around, a while ago someone had thought up an incredibly clever idea of disguising his Doberman as a Poodle. Here's the LINK for a good laugh.

I had to laugh but there's a bite to this, as always. Some of the sweetest dogs I know come from the list of dangerous dog breeds. The truth is legislators are trying to ban specific breeds saying that certain breeds are inherently dangerous. The truth is that certain breeds aren't inherently dangerous -- it's the individual dog, the training (or lack thereof) and the socialization.

There was study done which seems to confirm this. What the study found was not that certain breeds were responsible for dog bites but that certain circumstances were. These circumstances include:

The dog was untrained and unsocialized.
The dog was a pet.
The dog was unneutered.
The dog had been around kids, possibly teased by them.
The dog had been chained up in the front or backyard and not allowed in the house.
The dog had some prior incident that caused the dog to be chained up.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd bite too if I was more or less left in those conditions. The dogs that bit included not just the usual suspects, but also Cocker Spaniels, Collies, and Golden Retrievers.

There's an inherent problem with dog bite reporting too. Most so-called experts really aren't when it comes to identifying a dog. Dog breeds beyond the GSD or Labrador Retriever are often misidentified. Not naming names, but I remember seeing ads for a few animal control officers in some counties and the sole criteria for hiring wasn't understanding or education when it came to animals -- it was whether you were willing to put down a healthy animal via lethal injection. Now tell me, how can you be an expert with such loose criteria?

Case in point: my purebred, AKC registered Alaskan Malamutes, for example, have been called wolves and wolf hybrids by a so-called expert. Perish the thought that someone would call my dogs wolves! I've also been asked to identify what was clearly a wolf hybrid and told them I couldn't (because the dog would've gotten a lethal injection right then and there.) Their so-called hybrid expert identified the wolf-hybrid as a dog and the dog went to a home where the new owner knew what he had and trained her accordingly.

Now I consider myself an expert with dog breeds, but I'll readily admit that I can't always tell an Am. Staff from a Pit Bull from one of the other Bull Breeds. If I can't do it, how in the hell are local governments supposed to do it? What's more, a large number of dog bites go unreported. If you get bit by your toy dog, you're unlikely to go to the doctor unless it gets infected.

The truth is Pit Bulls can make some very fine pets and the problem is that the city governments aren't willing to address the real problems -- dog fighting and untrained, unsocialized dogs. I may rail about dog fighting later, but let me say that breed legislation isn't the way to stop dangerous dogs. Education, dog training, and enforcement of laws against dog fighting and crime is.