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America Against Breed Specific Legislation

Facts to Include in Letters

The American Temperament Testing Society does temperament testing throughout the year at breed clubs and complies the statistics.  The 2002 statistics show APBTs, AMSTAFFs, and Rottiweilers in the 82 percentile.  Golden Retrievers, Bichon Frise 77%, Chihuahua 71%, Greyhound 81%, Lhasa Apso 71%.  These test results are available at www.atts.org


 Kristine Crawford has a team of pit bulls who are the top rated Search and Rescue dogs in the US.  They were asked by NASA to assist in the recent shuttle tragedy, they also assisted in the recent missing girl in CA.   Tell all of these families that these dogs are evil, vicious or dangerous. These dogs have brought joyful reunions, and in some cases closure to a suffering family, I assure you these people would tell you how wonderful these dogs are!


There is a general misconception that dog aggression and human aggression are the same thing, this is WRONG!  In the canine world there are several types of aggression, fear, food, territory, displaced, etc.   Pit bulls were bred to fight dogs, true they can be dog aggressive, but they are NOT human aggressive.  Due to the nature of dog fighting any signs of human aggression was bred out of the lines.


Prince George County Maryland did very intensive research into their current ban on Pit Bulls last summer.  They formed a large taskforce to review their vicious dog law.  After months of research they produced a 300+ page report and one of the recommendations was to lift the ban because of cost, ineffectiveness, and it punishes the responsible dog owners and does nothing to the irresponsible dog owners who are the problem.


Dade County Florida has had a ban on Pit Bulls since 1988 and as of 2002 there were an estimated 50,000 pit bulls living in the county. BSL has been proven in a court of law to be unconstitutional by the Alabama Supreme Court, and a Westbury, NY court. There are also 3 cases still pending.


These organizations have written position statements against BSL.  The AKC, ASPCA, UKC, SPCA, AVMA and the HSUS jsut to name a few.


BSL punishes responsible dog owners while bad dog owners go underground.  Responsible dog owners leave the city or county.


Loss of revenue,  dog owners often stop traveling through BSL cities, counties.  There are many websites devoted to alerting people to BSL areas.  Also Dog Club shows, competitions, etc will look to hold conferences, shows, etc in NON-BSL locations..


Costly to the city and taxpayers.  Higher cost to enforce BSL,  more kennels to house the dogs, vet care, food, Euthanasia, etc.


Bite severity is not specific to a breed.  ALL dogs bite! 


Diffculty in determining breed.  There are 25 + breeds that are commonly incorrectly identified as pit bulls. 


Pit Bull is not a breed of dog.  So the definition varies.


Bite Statistics are inaccurate for many reasons, including pit bull are not a breed, but a term for 3 breeds.  So when looking at the report the number of pit bull bites should be divided by 3 immed. to be remotely fair.


BSL does nothing to educate or protect the citizens from dangerous dogs.  Dogs of any breed can be dangerous.  Laws need to be based on the Deed, not the breed
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Copyright America Against BSL 2007
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