The stated goal of breed specific legislation is to reduce injuries and fatalities from dog bites. This might be a legitimate intention but we have yet to see a case study where this has been successful.
Take Ireland. A study published in 2015 by The Veterinary Journal explored the effectiveness of that country’s breed specific legislation, where 11 breeds and mixes are targeted. Statistics gathered during the introductory period of Ireland’s Control of Dogs Act (1998 to 2013) determined a significant increase in dog bite injuries requiring hospitalization.
It was suggested that breed specific legislation may actually contribute to the rise in hospitalizations. While BSL targets a loosely defined category of dogs based on appearance, it ignores the fact that all breeds are capable of inflicting injury. Legislation that fails to recognize this often misleads the public into believing that unregulated breeds pose less of a threat, thus resulting in less care or caution when interacting with them.
#endBSL #notoBill128 #Canada150 #BSLbytes
---
Source and further reading:
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2015.04.021
---
For background on the #BSLbytes campaign visit the HugABull blog: http://blog.hugabull.com/take-a-byte-out-of-bsl
---
18/150
#BSLbytes 18
Posted by Chantelle Mackney on