Man Bites Dog: Breed Specific Legislation by Christina Harvey

We are in the midst of a dog-bite epidemic, not a dog fatality epidemic. Fatalities should be judged on a case-by-case basis, as fatalities happen seldom enough to merit prudent consideration to each occurrence.

Canine homicides stay at approximately 15-20 people per year. This can range from being a burglar and coming face to face with an unlucky fate, or being (the most common) a child under 12 years of age. Pit Bull's and Rottweilers generally top the list by what is believed to be all four breeds and their mixes responsible for approximately 7 of all deaths per year. This is simply because a bite from a strong dog, not just a Pit Bull or Rottweiler, but from any large and strong dog is more likely to be fatal than that of a smaller dog, or a dog with a delicate build. As an analogy, if a mid-sized sedan got into an accident with another vehicle, a big truck would be more likely to cause a fatality than a small or regular sized vehicle. Keep in mind though that almost all breeds of dog have been responsible for deaths, from a Pomeranian to a Great Dane to your good old fashion "Heinz 57" mutt.

"While at times informative, statistics on fatal dog attacks can also be misleading. For example, a number of cases were a Pit Bull, Rottweiler or GSD (German Shepherd Dog) were counted as causing a human fatality were in reality the direct result of gross human negligence or criminal intent (i.e. discarding a newborn in the yard where the dogs were kept, or cases of extremely emaciated animals, or cases were the dog was ordered or encouraged to attack the victim)." - fataldogattacks.com

According to nopitbullbans.com the Center for Disease Control admits:

"... to the extent that attacks by 1 breed are more newsworthy than those by other breeds, our methods may have resulted in differential ascertainment of fatalities by breed." (JAVMA, Vol 217, No. 6, September 15, 2000, p. 838)."(Note: even the officials who are responsible for keeping these vital statistics do not know that the term "Pit Bull" is not one breed of dog!).For example, if a witness of a dog attack claims that the dog was a Pit Bull it is recorded as one, meanwhile it could be any breed and the witness could have no idea about dog breeds.

"Even with these record numbers of dogs these days the fatal attacks caused by Pit Bulls is nothing compared to the inhumanity we face on a daily basis. We are talking about 20 fatal attacks by dogs a year, most of which are not Pit Bulls, this is not a Pit Bull problem folks." - Jason Mann of Pitbulllovers.com

As of December 2005, the most recent evaluations posted on the American Temperament Test Society (ATTS) website, the American Pit Bull Terrier had an 83.5% pass rate, whereas a Golden Retriever had a very similar 83.7% pass rate. A comparable number of individual dogs were tested (over 500 dogs of both breeds).

About two percent of the United States of America's population is bitten by dogs each year- approximately 4.7 million people. Compare that to the approximate 15 people per year who die from fatal dog attacks. As opposed to dog fatalities being dominated by breeds of strong stature such as the Pit Bull breeds, Rottweiler, German Shepherd Dog, Wolf-Hybrids, Malamutes, etc. there are no such findings with non-fatal dog bites. Within dog bite statistics there is no correlation between dog breed and volume of bites. However, there has been correlation between popularity of breed and bites. This supports my theory of simple probability.

Some experts state that the dog-bite epidemic is growing. This is untrue. It is the number of dog owners, and dogs per household that are growing. Again, it is simple probability, the more dogs that are living in the United States, the more bites will occur. This will never end unless we force owners to be more responsible.

"I became more than just casually suspicious of the statistics that showed that all of a sudden pit bulls were doing so much killing when I noticed two things. One was that the total number of dog-attack-related-fatalities had not risen according to the HSUS statistics that were everywhere offered as evidence of the ferocity of pit bulls. That meant that all of a sudden all those other breeds had stopped biting people seriously enough to kill them, which meant that for all breeds except pit bulls a sudden increase in sensible breeding and handling had taken place, and there would have been other evidence if that were so. If pit bulls had been killing a lot more people, there would have been a rise in the total number of deaths, and there wasn't. If anything, there was a slight drop, according the HSUS, depending on which of their figures you choose... Data from the attack-related fatalities throughout the period of hysteria in question, the late 1980's. The CDC stats do not give breeds. The only way to find out for sure what breed ID is made by victims, excited witnesses, cops, and reporters, and breed ID is a tricky business" - Vicki Hearne pg. 138 "Dossier of a Dangerous Dog"

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why BSL Does Not Work

"If pit bull-types were so inherently bad, how could millions of people share their families, their homes and their beds with them without issue? Since Furry Friends Foundation in Chicago began ten years ago, they've carefully adopted out 400 pit bull-type dogs without incident. "Mandatory dog training, socialization, and altering the dogs makes all the difference in the world," says Catherine Hedges, the shelter's founder. "People (who adopt them) are encouraged to keep the dogs indoors as members of the family. And they're discouraged from keeping them outside all the time, and especially discouraged from tethering them when they're outdoors."

Even Beck of Purdue University, who is cynical about pit bulls says, "Of course, responsible ownership does matter, and a little common sense goes a long way."

"The public may have one perception of pit bulls, but that perception isn't accurate," says Dunbar. "It's distracting to blame a dog breed rather than the real source of these dog attacks."' - badrap.org

Let's say that ultimately we allowed genocide on all Pit Bull breeds, on all Rottweilers and so forth. Let's say that we rid the world of these wonderful creatures that so many loving families currently and happily share their lives with. Now what? Criminals will be criminals. Irresponsible owners will be irresponsible owners. If we aren't implementing laws to teach them differently how are we going to break the cycle? We won't, and the cycle will continue as long as we allow it.

Now these undesirable dog owners take on another breed, the Mastiff's, the German Shepherd Dogs, the Dobermans, the Great Danes, and so on, and so forth. They torture and abuse these dogs to make them vicious.Because the law to ban specific dog breeds is already in place all legislators have to do is get the newly desired breed for banning approved. Before you know it the majority of dog breeds are gone… extinct. Breed Specific Legislation is nothing less than genocide on the companions that are so loyal to us, the companions that I for one could not live without, and the companions that WE bring into this world.

As earlier stated, BSL does not stop at one, two or even three breeds of dog. In Fairfield, Iowa any dog over 100lbs. is illegal, not to mention several specific breeds named in their legislation. In Italy they commenced BSL with 13 breeds of dog, by 2003 they had 92 breeds of dog on their banned list. Some of these breeds include the Corgi, Border Collie, and Boston Terrier. Breed Specific Legislation spreads like wildfire and the list expands just as quickly. As I previously stated, the statistical odds are that the more popular the breed of dog, the higher number of bite incidents will occur from that breed. Is it appropriate that every time a dog breed peaks in popularity (making it the current preferred dog breed), and rises to a statistically equivalent rank on the reported bite incident list that they should be banned? It is apparent that BSL is simply a band-aid on the matter of dog bites and attacks.

"You judge the greatness of a country by the way it treats its animals"- Mahatma Gandhi

There is no argument that something must be done about the standards, laws, and acceptable behaviors towards animals in our society; if not for the half million bite victims per year, then for the thousands (if not millions) of animals being abused and killed annually. Honestly, I'm perplexed that significantly more is not being done already. How many of you are sick of seeing videos on the Internet, stories in the news etc regarding people that lit their pet on fire, threw it tied up out of a moving car window, discarded live puppies in the trash and worse?I know that I am.

The fact of the matter is that we need to make changes, however BSL should not be included in these changes. Approving BSL would be like taking a step back into the dark ages. Breed Specific Legislation is genocide and it is a holocaust on dogs. When in history did we ever look back on the mass destruction of a particular specie, race, religion or any aspect defining a group as a positive thing? At the times this has occurred perhaps society thought it was an acceptable thing to do, though this always proves wrong. There is no exception for this behavior and I can now understand how targeted groups felt when they said "We never thought they were actually going to do this" when discussing the holocaust… and they did. It's surreal, and it's incredible that humans can be swayed into such extreme wrongs without ambiguity.

The idea of killing off a particular type of dog based on its appearance or breed is absolutely absurd. I cannot express enough how insane the very thought that this goes on in the world is to me. New York City has always been known as the capital of the world, the city full of innovators, and one of the most pet-friendly places in the entire world.It was with great sadness when I learned of how Mr. Peter Vallone Jr. is trying to implement such a barbaric law into our city. Instead of following in the foot steps of various cities and countries who have attempted Breed Specific Legislation without any change in the number dog attacks that occur, and most with extreme failure or no success at all I would assume that the intelligent officials that lead our great city would try to create a new precedent for the world to follow... standards that actually work.

It is within human nature to want to rid yourself of what you fear. For the average person without much dog knowledge, the hype the media presents (often wrongfully) regarding Pit Bull breeds is enough to cause the public to believe that they are monsters living among us! I cannot count the number of times a Pit Bull was blamed for an attack that was in fact not a Pit Bull breed. While noting how most other dog attacks do not make the news, whereas almost all Pit Bull related attacks do! Perhaps Pit Bull owners should start suing the media for defamation of character? Now that's a thought!

The fact is that your legislators will rant and rave about a grandfather clause and how their implementation of BSL is nothing but humane, right?  Wrong. Not only will any dogs targeted by BSL be forced to wear a muzzle at all times in public (horrible for socializing and for apartment living) but any dog or puppy that enters a shelter or rescue that resembles or is somehow deemed one of these targeted breeds will be euthanized immediately without exception. Neither temperament nor age is taken into account.(Do not forget the shaky ground beneath deeming a dog or puppy a "Pit Bull" or "Pit Bull type" dog.)

Grandfather clauses are a provision exempting persons or other entities already engaged in an activity from rules or legislation affecting that activity. Meaning that any existing dogs deemed a breed targeted by BSL would be allowed to live out their lives under extreme scrutiny, but will not be killed unless deemed a threat or nuisance. However, due to that fact that dog breeds targeted by BSL are officially deemed "dangerous dogs" the laws that apply to them and their owners are equivalent of dogs that have actually attacked someone in the past- even if the individual dog has never posed a threat to anyone or anything in their life. The ultimate goal of BSL is to eliminate the existence, to make extinct all breeds it targets.

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