[theber9]

BSL is BS


In my house my one year old son has a game he likes to play with our family dog. It starts off with Athena (our dog) going to get her bone and lying down with it. Then, Neven (my son) crawls over to Athena and pulls her bone right out of her mouth and hurries up and crawls to the other side of the living room. Athena will then get up and walk over to Neven and take her bone back and go lay down back where she was and wait for Neven to come over to her again. Cute, right? What if I told you that our family dog is a pure bred American Pit Bull Terrier? Would you still be smiling or would the reputation of my pet’s breed change how you view the relationship between my son and his dog.
By now we have all heard of the numerous and vicious pit bull attacks from the news. Also you have probably heard of horrible dog fighting and animal cruelty cases (just think of the Michael Vick fiasco). I’m here to hopefully change what you think about the American Pit Bull Terrier and I also hope to convince you that Breed Specific Legislation, for any breed, is ineffective.
Breed Specific Legislation according to Wikipedia is “any law, ordinance, or policy which pertains to a specific dog breed or breeds, but does not affect any others.” Some examples of BSL include Ontario, Canada where “pit bull type” dogs are prohibited. In Australia greyhounds are required to be muzzled in public. In the United Kingdom and in some places in the U.S. there are restrictions or prohibition of the American Pit Bull Terrier.
Another definition of breed specific legislation that came up during research is from bulliebuddies.org states “BSL restricts or outlaws the ownership of the named breeds with no consideration to the behavior or temperament of the individual dogs being banned- if dog even ‘looks like’ one of the named breeds it is subject to BSL.” Some more examples of the effect of BSL include the restrictions on the availability of homeowners insurance in the U.S. This is one I know personally since I am required by law to carry$100,000 liability insurance for my pet. This insurance comes with a $5,000 dollar deductible if it’s ever needed to be used. This set up is a huge scam to take advantage of pet owners. BSL also restricted the importing of German Shepard’s into Australia for a large part of the twentieth century. The breed of dog that is deemed vicious changes through the years, but right now it is clear that the main target is the American Pit Bull Terrier.
There are many problems associated with BSL. First there is the task of breed identification. There are numerous reports of “pit bull” attacks or “pit bulls” on the loose that the dog warden shows up to find that the dog is not a “pit bull”. Many times it turns out to be a boxer or other square faced dog not related to the APBT. Too often people try to identify a breed with out any expert knowledge that is needed to do so correctly and accurately. Often APBT bans are a reaction from politicians after a dog attack (of any breed) in order to show that they are responding to the problem. “A majority of dog attacks could’ve been prevented if there had been strict enforcement of existing law. If it’s already too difficult, or perhaps not a priority, to enforce current dog laws, additional laws will not make a community safer.” (www.forpitssake.org)


(Here's the first two pages of my paper. I'll post two at a time so that it's not too much at once)

[Michele]

Thank you for posting this

[Bella_n_Romos_MoM]

great paper, I cant wait to read more

[Gr8fulang]

What a great topic for your writing class and a job well done! Thanks for sharing!