Breed specific legislation (BSL), also known colloquially as a pit bull ban, happens to be in place across the Denver metropolitan area in the state of Colorado. Most of these bans are decades old. Many feel that it is time for these bans to be lifted. But not everyone feels ready to welcome pit bulls into their neighborhoods. The main reason for this is safety concerns and the fear of dog attacks that could result in serious injury or even death. In most deaths from dog attacks, the victims are children and the elderly. No one wants to see anyone killed by a vicious animal especially some of society’s most vulnerable members. Surely these bans are the best way to protect ourselves and those in our communities. But pit bull bans are not a way to guarantee safety from dogs attacks. Nor do they guarantee safety from pit bulls themselves. And what of the ethics of such legislation is it fair to punish all pit bulls and their owners for the actions of such a small fraction of the breed.
Reliable sources against BSL
President Obama himself has stated that he is against breed specific legislation. An official statement from the White House in 2013 stated: “We don’t support breed-specific legislation — research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources.” The Center for Disease Prevention has made similar statements to the one made by President Obama and is indeed where Obama received some of his information from. Additionally, the American Bar Association has for years stated that BSL harms dogs, their families, due process, and even the economy but do not actually improve public safety in any meaningful fashion.
Instead of contributing to our public safety BSL instead becomes a drain on resources as it is the source for so many lengthy legal battles and lawsuits. So if BSL costs us money and doesn’t meaningfully improve our safety why should we support it. It is easy to be afraid of pit bulls after seeing so many news headlines about vicious dogs. But these headlines don’t tell the whole story. Not every dog bite is reported and bites from pit bulls tend to be reported with greater frequency than bites from other breeds. Most stories talk about unprompted attacks but not every attack is unprompted. It is important to have an understanding of dog behavior when looking at such reports and it is even more important the dog’s owner be a responsible one who does everything they can to ensure that his or her furry friend is an understanding canine citizen and member of the community. Responsible ownership will greatly reduce the number of dog bites not just from pit bulls but from all breeds.
The Ban Is Just Too Broad
What we call a pit bull is one of three breeds; the American Staffordshire Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, and the Staffordshire bull terrier. That is just official classification, however, many dogs that have pit bull like appearances and could be mistaken for a pit bull without actually being one.
An article published by The Veterinary Journal details the pitfalls of trying to classify dogs by breed as observed in four different shelters. Shelter staff and even veterinarians are often expected to guess a dog’s breed based solely off the dog’s physical appearance. One in five dogs with pit bull genetics were not classified as pit bulls by staff, one in three dogs lacking pit bull DNA were classified as pit bulls by at least one staff member. This means a family may not know they are adopting a pit bull and may end up unknowingly violating the law. This also means that a dog that is not a pit bull may be passed over for adoption and even put down. Animal shelters lack the money to test the genetics of the dogs they care for. So the dogs are classified based on appearance. How can we ban a dog based off of its breed when determining that breed has such a high margin of error?
All of that is separate from the vast numbers of dogs euthanized just because of their breed. In 2009 Westword leaked photos that showed just of few of the 3, 947 pit bulls euthanized in Denver because BSL made them unadoptable. And yet even with this ban in place and so many dogs who were killed; Denver still has a very high dog bite rate. Nor are pit bull bites more dangerous than the bites of other dogs with a similar build.
BSL makes so significant impact on public safety so why support it.
Jordan's pit bull project 