Breed-specific legislation (BSL) is designed to place restrictions on ownership of certain breeds of dogs. Typically, the restricted breeds include pit bull-type dogs (usually vaguely defined), followed by Rottweilers. Other breeds may include German Shepherds, Chow Chows, Presa Canarios, Dobermans, Cane Corsos, Huskies, Boxers, and mixes of these.

Breed-specific legislation creates a number of restrictions or regulations on any one breed. Owners of certain breeds of dogs may be required to:
-Keep the dog muzzled in public
-Purchase insurance for the dog
-Keep the dog on its owner's property at all times (no trips to the park, the store, etc.)
-Keep the dog in a specific enclosure at all times.

The most common kind of breed-specific legislation completely bans all dogs of a certain breed. This means that all dogs of the banned breed must be removed from the area or euthanized.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH BSL?

Breed identification is impossible.

The biggest problem is that breed-specific legislation, true to its name, requires every dog to be classified as a certain breed. This is virtually impossible!

Almost all BSL restricts "pit bulls". What are "pit bulls"? American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers are usually thrown into that category. What about American Bulldogs, Bull Terriers, Boxers, or English Bulldogs? To aggravate breed identification conundrums, most legislation adds "and mixes" to the wording. In what I can only assume is an attempt to patch up this mess, the law may helpfully describe the appearance of dogs that fall under the category of "pit bull". Needless to say, a lot of dogs fall under the description of "wide head, broad chest, and short fur". Suddenly you're up to your neck in "pit bulls"!

It is readily acknowledged by anyone familiar with handling a variety of dogs and mix breeds (animal control officers, veterinarians, shelter workers, etc.) that accurate identification of a dog's breed or mix is virtually impossible without registration papers or a pedigree at hand. Considering how rarely an animal control officer (ACO) catches a dog wearing tags, how often do you think an ACO lassos a stray dog that happens to have its pedigree papers? Funny thing, genetics. It causes dogs to come in all shapes and sizes and colors - especially the mixed breeds.

To further the injustice, in many cases the dog's owner is responsible for proving that their dog is not a member of the proscribed breed, a task that is usually as difficult as proving it is a certain breed. This is a clear cut case of "guilty before proven innocent" - a very unAmerican philosophy. Breed misidentification leads to expensive, time-consuming lawsuits against the government, something that costs taxpayers a lot of money. The animal control departments I spoke to recently identified these lawsuits as one of the worst consquenses of BSL - their precious time and money wasted defending laws that almost nobody in the animal control industry likes.

Pause for a moment to take this test from understand-a-bull.com. See if you can identify the purebred American Pit Bull Terrier. Good luck! You're going to need it.

New breeds fill the void.

There will always be antisocial creeps looking to boost their own ego by creating a monster to intimidate and threaten people with. So, what happens when people are blocked from owning "pit bulls"? They'll get some other breed to do the job. Indeed, across the decades we have seen those bad owners tarnish the reputations of Dobermans, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, and now to pit bulls. Next up: Cane Corsos and Presa Canarios. Banning a breed will not stop the sicko creeps that want to create a vicious dog. They have no problem moving on.

It's a hassle to own a dog of a restricted breed.

People who support BSL would say, "Good! We want it to be a hassle. We want it to be hard to own these dogs in order to be sure that only committed owners have them." Unfortunately, logically, it doesn't work out that way at all. In fact, it's just the opposite.

Responsible dog owners are turned off by BSL. Who wants to put up a fence, pay an extra license fee, purchase extra insurance, etc. just to own a dog that everyone discriminates against? Responsible owners are driven away from the breeds that need them the most. Rescue organizations and shelters are overburdened with perfectly good dogs that no one wants. For good owners with lower incomes, caring for a restricted-breed dog is too expensive considering the cost of extra insurance, special licensing fees, and so forth.

On the other hand, irresponsible owners and criminals could care less about BSL. They really don't care about the laws anyway. They already fail to license and vaccinate their dogs. They don't follow leash laws. Their dogs are unsocialized, untrained, and neglected. How can BSL change the way these owners act?

BSL treats all owners exactly the same, whether they are good, responsible owners or neglectful, irresponsible owners. What, then, would inspire a good owner to train their dog and teach it to be a good canine citizen? If the dog has to wear a muzzle on the streets and you have to buy extra insurance to keep it, there's no incentive to spend $100 plus "one hour per week for six weeks" at an obedience class (assuming the dog is even allowed in public).

Upholding BSL is a burden.

Animal control agencies and animal shelters already struggle with too much work and not enough money. Employees and officers must prioritize based on the most immediate needs. They can't answer every stray dog call when they're buried in animal neglect and abuse cases. They already find themselves in court defending a seizure or testifying against an abuser, or spending hours calling witnesses and tracking down perpetrators. Animal control officers must take on roles as animal handlers, trappers, police, psychiatrists, social workers, veterinarians, prosecutors, investigators, detectives, witnesses, and more. They deal with life-and-death situations, angry people, and disturbing scenes of violence. All for a paycheck that's smaller than mine (and I'm just an office manager).

To make matters worse, animal-cruelty and dangerous-animal legislation is weak and often full of loopholes. Punishments rarely amount to more than a slap on the wrist. There's very little incentive for an animal control officer to pursue an abuse case if the likely outcome of the case is a measly fine for the perpetrator. In fact, many areas have animal abuse laws that are miserably inadequate and dangerous dog laws that are laughable. Even basic leash laws are sometimes nonexistant.

Punishments for violators are paltry and lack conviction. In my area, an owner of a loose dog that attacked people was not prosecuted - because his dog was killed during the attack. In fact, in several recent reports of dog attacks, the owners simply weren't charged with anything at all. This includes one case where a person's pack of dogs killed a little girl as they ran loose through the neighborhood. Wait, wouldn't that count as "manslaughter"? Apparently not. The owner didn't even get a fine for breaking the leash law.

In sum, animal control laws are not only weak, they are also generally unenforced, particularly in the case of minor infractions such as failure to follow leash laws and failure to register the dog as required by law. However, many dog attacks and bites result from these "minor" infractions. Adding BSL to this weak foundation only causes instability and possible collapse. Perhaps our first focus should be on reinforcing and strengthening the non-breed-specific laws already in place. This would help relieve some of the burden on animal control officers and shelters and would likely solve a lot of our dangerous dog problems in the process.

BSL is EXPENSIVE!

BSL is just another set of laws and rules that need to be upheld by struggling animal control agencies on tight budgets. These new laws will require larger budgets and additional employees to handle the expanded amount of enforcement duties.

BSL means more surrendered animals. Shelters will need to expand to hold the increased number of surrendered dogs. They will need to pay for food, shelter, and medicine for more dogs, and will ultimately need to euthanize more dogs due to lack of space and funding.

BSL prompts lawsuits from dog owners. These are often due to alleged breed misidentification or violated constitutional rights. Lawsuits are often expensive and time consuming, draining resources and tax money from the government. The AKC (and other national organizations who are against BSL) often assists dog owners in their legal battles. The animal control agencies are often unhappy about defending laws they don't support in court.