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Emily Clare is a passionate and long-time advocate for breed-neutral laws. She recently founded United Paws, a group to connect and rally dog lovers against discriminatory and ineffective animal control legislation. She wrote the following article about the effect BSL has had on her life. Thank you for contributing to and sharing our #BSLbytes campaign, Emily!  “ …The Policeman pulled into the parking lot directly next to where we were standing, all the while staring straight at us. I didn’t dare look his way, but could feel his eyes burning through me. He got out of the car and started walking towards...

Do you have a fact, story, or statistic that would make a good #BSLbyte? Share it with us! We will post your submissions on Fridays (#FollowerFriday). Thank you to Sydney for today’s contribution.--Did you know that only 50 genomes out of 20,000 account for a dog's physical characteristics? That means that less than 1% of canine genomes contribute to physical appearance. BSL is based on looks, but there is no reason to believe that genes for physical appearance correlate with behaviour. Looks do not determine behaviour, yet policy makers are enforcing laws that target dogs based on less than 1%...

Dog bite-related fatalities are often used in research into dog aggression. These fatalities are exceedingly rare but easiest to gather data on (not all dog bites are consistently reported, but deaths are). Although it can be difficult to confirm the breed(s) of dog involved in an attack, the little information we have suggests that a variety of breeds and mixes are responsible for serious dog attacks. Curious about the numbers in Canada? Chicobandito.com lists the 43 known fatalities that have occurred over the last 34 years and the breeds of dogs thought to be involved. "Pit bull" type dogs barely...

Today's #BSLbyte is a personal account of what it's like living with BSL in Ontario. A big thank you to Lori Gray for letting us share her story.--"In Canada we live in a bubble, taking quite a few things for granted.We travel freely, are free to choose who we hang out with, who we marry or don’t, where we live, what kind of house or how much property we can afford to own or rent. We can get a great education, job, raise a family. We can speak freely without censorship. We are entitled to fair and equal treatment… or...

Science increasingly supports the notion that we should evaluate each dog as an individual rather than make assumptions based on what we perceive their breed to be. In 2011, a study of dogs at the Vancouver SPCA found that a group of dogs labelled “pit bulls” fared about the same as a group of dogs of similar size when it came to adoption success and behaviour. As the author says: “average pit bulls in average homes are average dogs.” #endBSL #notoBill128 #Canada150 #BSLbyteshttp://stubbydog.org/2012/03/a-new-pit-bull-studyStudy: https://goo.gl/wB09PWFor background on the #BSLbytes campaign visit the HugABull blog: http://blog.hugabull.com/take-a-byte-out-of-bsl 3/150