

Dear Mr. President & Mr. Vice President,

Breed-specific legislation is a law passed by a legislative body pertaining to a specific breed or breeds of domesticated animals. In practice, it generally refers to laws pertaining to a specific dog breed or breeds. Some jurisdictions have enacted breed-specific legislation in response to a number of well-publicized incidents involving pit bull-type dogs or other dog breeds commonly used in dog fighting, and some government organizations such as the United States Army and Marine Corps have taken administrative action as well. This legislation ranges from outright bans on the possession of these dogs, to restrictions and conditions on ownership, and often establishes a legal presumption that these dogs are prima facie legally "dangerous" or "vicious".

I'm a volunteer for a national, non-profit dog attack victim's group dedicated to reducing serious dog attacks. We'd like to ask you both to do a little research on the problems arising by pit bull attacks across the USA. Sufficiently enforced breed-specific pit bull laws absolutely reduce damaging attacks by pit bulls. In an ongoing report, Cities with Successful Pit Bull Laws; Data Shows Breed-Specific Laws Work, they document these results in the U.S. and Canada. The most dramatic results are often seen in jurisdictions that ban pit bulls because a ban reduces the breeding and the importation of pit bulls into the community. There have been excellent results with other types of ordinances as well.

When it comes to dogs in general, genetics play a big role. “No doubt about it, pit bulls are genetically predisposed toward aggression,”. “Just as certain breeds of dogs were bred to herd, certain were bred to hunt, certain to point, and others to swim.” While most pet owners accept that their dogs have certain genetic behavioral characteristics, there is still resistance to the idea that some dogs are more dangerous than others. Everybody accepts genetic behaviors like herding or hunting, until you throw in the word ‘aggression’ and things like a full, crushing bite, which some breeds were specifically bred for in the past.” Statistics on dog attacks reinforce the link between certain dogs and dangerous behavior.

Pit bulls and Rottweilers alone account for more than 70 percent of the fatal dog attacks every year now. Despite the danger, the owners of these dogs often fail to take proper precautions because of their denials and that is why they are the main targets for attacks. A lot of owners of aggressive breeds suffer from denial and ignorance, because no one wants to be fingered out as having that kind of dog.

So yes, "genetics does play a role and people who think it doesn’t are kidding themselves,” For me or any other knowledgeable person in the veterinary field to come out and lie about this trait should be close enough to "Mal Practice" it should have our license took away. “The pit bull is notorious for a very hard bite and their consistency makes it that much worse. They are always No. 1 in the lethal dog bite parade. The dog was bred for pit fighting and tackling 2,000 lb bulls. It was bred to never give up, to bite and hang on.

After Aurora, Colorado adopted its pit bull ban ordinance in 2005, attacks by pit bulls decreased 73% (as of March 2014). After Pawtucket, Rhode Island adopted their pit bull ban in 2004, the city released 13-years of bite data showing that in the 4-years leading up to the ban, there were 52 pit bull attacks on people. In the 10-years after the ban, there were only 13 (as of September 2013). In Toronto, after a decade long pit bull ban, pit bull attacks dropped from 168 to 13 annually.

The dramatic reduction in pit bull attacks on people and animals are not the only benefits. Over the same period in Aurora, pit bull euthanasia dropped 93%. In Pawtucket, the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA) had "regularly" convened vicious dog hearings for pit bulls before the ban ordinance. After the ban passed, the RISPCA never saw another one from Pawtucket. 6 Other cities report a substantial reduction in vicious dog designations as well.

After Springfield, Missouri adopted a pit bull ordinance in 2006, im-poundments of pit bulls were quickly cut in half, freeing up shelter space. In the year before the ordinance, 2005, 502 pit bulls were impounded, compared to only 252 in 2007.7 When breed-specific laws are combined with an anti-chaining ordinance, as was done in Little Rock's pit bull ordinance, excellent outcomes resulted as well: The commonality of seeing a pit bull chained in its owner's yard disappeared.

In addition to the ongoing report, studies from two different countries, Canada and Spain, show that breed-specific regulations resulted in a significant decrease of dog bite injury hospitalizations.

Effectiveness of Breed-Specific Legislation in Decreasing the Incidence of Dog-Bite Injury Hospitalizations in People in the Canadian Province of Manitoba, by Malathi Raghavan, Patricia J Martens, Dan Chateau, and Charles Burchill, Injury Prevention, Published Online First, June 30, 2012 (View related post).

Decline in Hospitalizations Due to Dog Bite Injuries in Catalonia, 1997–2008. An Effect of Government Regulation?, by Joan R Villalbi, Montse Cleries, Susana Bouis, Víctor Peracho, Julia Duran and Conrad Casas, Injury Prevention, 2010;16:408-410.

The Marine Corps has banned "large dog breeds with a predisposition toward aggressive or dangerous behavior", including pit bull-type dogs (among other breeds) in on-base housing and privatized housing, as have a number of United States Army, U.S. Air Force and Navy installations. Several hundred municipal governments in the United States have enacted breed-specific legislation banning or restricting pit bull-type dogs and a few other breeds.

To the families of the attacks by dangerous dogs such as Pit Bulls and Rottweilers it is a life long process and some with life long scars that need surgeries after surgeries. People that own these type of animals need to have more restrictions, regulations and also need to have severe fines and punishments if their deemed dangerous dogs attack someone or another animal. BSL does help and needs to be enforced everywhere to better help protect even them who don't think they do. Many attacks happen in an instant and without warning or any signs of aggression leading up to the attack. It can happen to any of these dogs no matter how much love or training and when these types of dogs that can rip us apart do attack, we are in for a rude awakening. Most of the time it's to late, so we should all be a step ahead of these outbreaks.



Facts that matter when it comes to Pit Bulls ...

Pit Bulls...Kill 10's of thousands of other animals a year.

Pit Bulls...Kill 20-35 Humans every year

Pit Bulls...Severely Maul/Maim thousands of people every year.

Pit Bulls...possess the quality of gameness, which is not a totally clear concept, but which can be described as the propensity to catch and maul an attacked victim unrelentingly until death occurs, or as the continuing tenacity and tendency to attack repeatedly for the purpose of killing. It is clear that the un-quantifiable, unpredictable aggressiveness and gameness of Pit Bulls make them uniquely dangerous.

Pit Bulls have the following distinctive behavioral characteristics: a) grasping strength, b) climbing and hanging ability, c) weight pulling ability, d) a history of frenzy, which is the trait of unusual relentless ferocity or the extreme concentration on fighting and attacking, e) a history of catching, fighting, and killing instinct, f) the ability to be extremely destructive and aggressive, g) highly tolerant of pain, h) great biting strength, i) undying tenacity and courage and they are highly unpredictable.

While these traits, tendencies or abilities are not unique to Pit Bulls exclusively, Pit Bulls will have these instincts and pheno-typical characteristics; most significantly, such characteristics can be latent and may appear without warning or provocation.

The breeding history of Pit Bulls makes it impossible to rule out a violent propensity for any one dog as gameness and aggressiveness can be hidden for years. Given the Pit Bull's genetical physical strengths and abilities, a Pit Bull always poses the possibility of danger; given the Pit Bull's breeding history as a fighting dog and the latency of its aggressiveness and gameness, the Pit Bull poses a danger distinct from other breeds of dogs which do not so uniformly share those traits.

While Pit Bulls are not the only breed of dog which can be dangerous or vicious, it is reasonable to single out the breed to anticipate and avoid the dangerous aggressiveness which may be undetectable in a Pit Bull.

Good people in Societies do not want Pit Bulls anywhere near them and over 90% of Americans that do not own a Pit Bull want them Banned. Anyone wanting to own such an animal that has the strength and ability to rip their limbs off is delusional and has a very low knowledge of what common sense is used for. There is no place for a Pit Bull type dog anywhere in Societies as pets.



Please put a mandatory BSL Ordinance that will help ensure the public"s safety from these types of dogs. Anyone owning these types of dogs should have to put an Insurance Claim on them and be liable for anyone or anything their Pit Bull/s attack. The fear that these attacks have caused is real and with good reason. We shouldn't have to suffer for what pit owners are gambling with but we are. The love they have for their pits is blinding them from truth. Their denials are getting people maimed and killed, even their own loved ones. We see it every day, someone or something is attacked by these dogs. A lot of us are scared to even walk to our mail boxes, walk our pets or water our gardens. Please help us.

Thank you for your time with this.