Effectiveness of breed-specific legislation and owner responsibility laws

¶ … Breed Specific Bans

State and Local Government Laws on Breeding Dangerous Pets

While some states and local government have breeding bans on dangerous pets, other states and local governments have failed to address this issue. Rather than a ban on breeding of dangerous pets, the law would be better served to hold owners of dangerous pets responsible for their pets.

The purpose of the study proposed is to examine the state and local laws on breeding of dangerous pets and to determine if a federal law should be enacted on this issue.

The significance of this study is the additional knowledge that will be added to the already existing base of knowledge in this area of inquiry.

Research Questions

The research questions addressed in this study include those as follows:

(1) What types of laws have been enacted by state and local governments to address the issue of breeding dangerous pets?

(2) Are any federal laws in existence that address the issue breeding dangerous pets?

(3) Should federal laws be enacted that address the issue of breeding dangerous pets?

(4) Are breed specific laws effective?

(5) What are the alternatives to breed-specific laws?

Literature Review

The Florida Senate (2008) reports that the National Canine Research Council reports from 1965-2008 that 34 fatal dog attacks have occurred involving 13 adults and 21 children in the state of Florida that included 11 breeds of dogs. Of the children killed by fatal dog attacks, more than 80% of the children were reported to have been killed by dogs when the children were left unsupervised "with unfamiliar dogs or when they wandered into areas where unfamiliar dogs were located." (Florida Senate, 2008, p.1) Of those fatal attacks, 32 of the 34 dogs were "unneutered dogs." (Florida Senate, 2008, p.1) The Florida Senate reports that a dangerous dog is defined as follows:

(1) A dog that "…has aggressively bitten, attacked, endangered, or has inflicted severe injury on a human being on public or private property";

(2) A dog that has"… more than once severely injured or killed a domestic animal while off the owner's property";

(3) A dog that has been "…used primarily or in part for the purpose of dog fighting or is a dog trained for dog fighting"; or (4) A dog that has "…when unprovoked, chased or approached a person upon the streets, sidewalks, or any public grounds in a menacing fashion or apparent attitude of attack, provided that such actions are attested to in a sworn statement by one or more persons and dutifully investigated by the appropriate authority." (Florida Senate, 2008, p.1)

The work of Snyder (2012) reports that just because a dog breed is listed as a dangerous breed of dog does not mean that every dog of that breed is necessarily dangerous because "A dog owner's behavior toward his or her dog will determine the dog's personality. If a dog owner encourages aggressive behavior or abuses their pet, the dog will be more likely to attack or bite." (p.1) The ASPCA states that is no evidence in existence that indicates that breed-specific laws "which are costly and difficult to enforce -- make communities safer for people or companion animals. For example, Prince George's County, MD, spends more than $250,000 annually to enforce its ban on Pit Bulls. In 2003, a study conducted by the county on the ban's effectiveness noted that "public safety is not improved as a result of [the ban]," and that "there is no transgression committed by owner or animal that is not covered by another, non-breed specific portion of the Animal Control Code (i.e., vicious animal, nuisance animal, leash laws)." (ASPCA, 2012, p.1)

Conclusions and Recommendations

The brief literature reviewed conducted in this proposal for research states evidence that breed-specific bans on dangerous pets has not been found to be effective and furthermore that such bans are costly. Arising from this initial study is a recommendation that a research study be undertaken to gain more specific and thorough knowledge concerning breed-ban laws and their level of effectiveness.