Breed Specific Legislation is BAD NEWS

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Breed-specific legislation (BSL), 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: * Restrictions on or the prohibition of ownership of American Pit Bull Terriers in the United Kingdom, some municipalities of the United States. * Restrictions on the ownership and a prohibitation on the breeding of "pit bull type" dogs (i.e. Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, American Pit Bull Terriers or any other dog with a substantially similar appearance) in Ontario, Canada.[1] * Restrictions in Australia prohibiting the importation of the Pit Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, the Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, and the Brazilian Mastiff. There is also a more stringent ban in Sydney, Australia restricting the sale, acquisition, breeding or giving away of any of the aforementioned breeds. [2] * Restrictions on the availability of homeowners insurance for owners of many breeds, including American Pit Bull Terriers, Rottweilers, Dobermanns, Akitas, in some areas of the United States [3]. * Proposed legislation in some Australian states that would prohibit the breeding of any breed of dog not recognized by the Australian National Kennel Council, or restrict or prohibit breeding certain breeds. * The requirement that Greyhounds wear muzzles in public in some Australian states. * The Dangerous Dogs Act of the United Kingdom legislatively drafted prohibitions for certain types of dogs; most notably pit-bull type dogs. The worst part about BSL is that it doesn't serve to do what it was designed to do. There are simply some people who should own dogs, whether it be a poodle or a pitbull. When laws or bylaws like BSL are introduced, the only people that suffer are those whose family pets are taken away and destroyed simply for looking a certain way. Those people who keep dogs like pitbulls, rottweilers or dobermans for fighting or as attack dogs (please differentiate from 'guard dogs' where the dogs serve a purpose protecting hearth and home rather than those dogs just trained to intimidate and be used as 'weapons') don't suffer because the majority of those people don't consider their animals, their 'pets'. They will either squirrel their animals away in an secluded area to avoid suspicion (serving only to further enrage these already poorly or completely unsocialized animals), or they will let law enforcement take them away and move onto to another breed with similar characteristics. Punishing the deed, instead of the breed, is more effective in that it doesn't paint a dark picture of all dogs of one breed, regardless of whether or not they are all 'dangerous', but it punishes the dog involved in the attack to prevent them from doing something similar in the future. Law enforcement should also be restricting the individual owning the dog in question's rights to own animals as they haven't proven responsible in the past. BSL creates 'witch-hunts' where neighbours call bylaw enforcement on their neighbour to have their so-called 'dangerous dog' taken away. These dogs are not responsible for anything more than appearing the way that they do. People owning stocky Labradors, American Bulldogs, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Mastiff Crosses or other rare 'bully' breeds are having their lives turned into upheaval as their best friends are being taken away leaving them only a scant few days to prove their dog's innocence before they are put to sleep. Even animal control officers have professed to having trouble identifying what a 'pitbull' is, and these are the people in control of enforcing BSL. http://network.bestfriends.org/stopbsl/news/10258.html I can't blame them, it took me 3 tries to find the pitbull on this page http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html and I've owned and showed dogs almost my entire life. Give it a try. You'll be surprised. The result of this is going to be a larger and more extensive 'banned breed' list in counties, countries, provinces and states where an existing breed ban already exists. If you think I'm kidding, please take a look at this list of breeds either listed as: 'Restricted' (one of 3 things, owners are forced to spay or neuter animal, Breed-specific insurance requirements forces owners to obtain the unobtainable "vicious" breed insurance - in reality this forces owners to surrender dogs or move, or banning dogs over an arbitrarily determined weight or size - as in Fairfield, Iowa where all dogs over 100 lbs are banned such as St. Bernards, Irish Wolfhounds, Great Danes, etc.) OR 'Banned' (an outright ban on owning a specific breed of dog) in several states in the US. 1. AIREDALE TERRIER 2. AKBASH 3. AKITA 4. ALAPAHA BLUE BLOOD BULLDOG 5. ALASKAN MALAMUTE 6. ALSATIAN SHEPHERD 7. AMERICAN BULLDOG 8. AMERICAN HUSKY 9. AMERICAN PIT BULL TERRIER 10. AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER 11. AMERICAN WOLFDOG 12. ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD 13. ARIKARA DOG 14. AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG 15. AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD 16. BELGIAN MALINOIS 17. BELGIAN SHEEPDOG 18. BELGIAN TURVUREN 19. BLUE HEELER 20. BOERBUL 21. BORZOI 22. BOSTON TERRIER 23. BOUVIER DES FLANDRES 24. BOXER 25. BULLDOG 26. BULL TERRIER 27. BULL MASTIFF 28. CANE CORSO 29. CATAHOULA LEOPARD DOG 30. CAUCASIAN SHEPHERD 31. CHINESE SHAR PEI 32. CHOW-CHOW 33. COLORADO DOG 34. DOBERMAN PINSCHER 35. DOGO DE ARGENTINO 36. DOGUE DE BORDEAUX 37. ENGLISH MASTIFFS 38. ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL 39. ESKIMO DOG 40. ESTRELA MOUNTAIN DOG 41. FILA BRASILIERO 42. FOX TERRIER 43. FRENCH BULLDOG 44. GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG 45. GOLDEN RETRIEVER 46. GREENLAND HUSKY 47. GREAT DANE 48. GREAT PYRANEES 49. ITALIAN MASTIFF 50. KANGAL DOG 51. KEESHOND 52. KOMONDOR 53. KOTEZEBUE HUSKY 54. KUVAZ 55. LABRADOR RETRIEVER 56. LEONBERGER 57. MASTIFF 58. NEOPOLITAN MASTIFF 59. NEWFOUNDLAND 60. OTTERHOUND 61. PRESA DE CANARIO 62. PRESA DE MALLORQUIN 63. PUG 64. ROTTWEILER 65. SAARLOOS WOLFHOND 66. SAINT BERNARD 67. SAMOYED 68. SCOTTISH DEERHOUND 69. SIBERIAN HUSKY 70. SPANISH MASTIFF 71. STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER 72. TIMBER SHEPHERD 73. TOSA INU 74. TUNDRA SHEPHERD 75. WOLF SPITZ Is your breed on that list? Mine is. On the front page of this website, help Calgary's dog owners out and vote NO! to them introducing a breed ban http://www.calgary.ctv.ca/ and if your county or city is planning to introduce a breed ban or restricted breed list, join in the fight before we lose our rights to own our dogs.