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Animal Law Conference: Proves BSL Does Not Work!

October 05, 2007, 7:3PM MT

By Denise A LeBeau

Animal Law Conference focuses on the knock out of Breed Specific Legislation! Explores real solutions thanks to Best Friends legal team!

Animal Law Conference focuses on the knock out of Breed Specific Legislation! Explores real solutions thanks to Best Friends legal team!

by Denise LeBeau, Best Friends staff

Everyday there seems to be more municipalities considering BSL or breed specific legislation as a knee-jerk reaction to usually an unfortunate and recent tragedy involving a dog. The problem with BSL is that it does not address the underlying issues that cause a community to be at risk. BSL does not get at the core of the problem: dangerous dogs and the irresponsible owners that create them.

On September 29, 2007, Russ Mead General Counsel for Best Friends Animal Society spoke at the annual Lewis & Clark College of Law’s Animal Law Conference. He explained to the 150 attendees which included attorneys, law students, animal welfare advocates, representatives from humane societies’ and SPCA’s, and animal control officials how to convince local government officials to avoid BSL. It’s a “how to” program, devised by researching statistics, animal behavior facts, talking to humane officers and by listening to the participants from the Best Friend’s Dangerous Dog Summit that took place in Denver last year. Based on these findings, the Best Friend’s program under the helm of Mr. Mead was able to ignite these movers and shakers into a proactive rather than a reactive approach to community safety.

BSL – problems! Breed bans are inconclusive because all pit-bull types of dogs are targeted. It is almost impossible to identify a “pit bull” and lumps all pit bull type dogs into the ban. The typical community has about 8% of the dogs bites coming from pit bull or pit mixes, and it is reported that the chances of being attacked and killed by a pit bull is one in 145 million. Scratch the surface and it’s quickly apparent that breed bans are a costly goose chase and they don’t work! Getting down to the nitty-gritty does!

“The enthusiasm of the lawyers, law students, and animal welfare advocates was amazing. I couldn’t get through the presentation without being interrupted by their many questions about how they could go back to their communities and stop the killing of these dogs just because of their breed. People understood Best Friends’ model program is designed to make communities safer, something BSL does not do,” says Mr. Mead.

Best Friends in conjunction with their crackerjack legal team, including Laura Allen author of Animal Law Coalition has come up with very succinct and easy steps that any community can start adopting immediately! Here’s a brief overview with some of the most imperative points:

1) Pass a dangerous dog law that penalizes to varying degrees different levels in displays of aggression. This engages the public to look at ways to curb bad behavior in their dog before it escalates.
2) Pass & enforce leash laws that require spay/neuter after second violation.
3) Pass laws that restrict tethering, chaining, penning and caging of dogs. Chained dogs are 2.8 times more likely to be more aggressive.

4) Encourage spay/neuter and provide low-cost spay/neuter services. Ninety percent of all fatal dog attacks are by intact males and females.
5) Encourage responsible dog ownership, including early socialization and training. Eighty-one percent of fatal dog attacks are by dogs that were isolated or not treated as part of their family.
6) Strengthen dog fighting and anti-cruelty laws.

“Best Friends addresses the problems that cause dogs to become aggressive and bite. And the audience appreciated our program as offering a real solution that will save dogs’ lives. Everyone took home a copy of the Best Friends’ model laws which our attorney, Peggy Sutton, helped write and information packets prepared by Best Friends staffer, Denise LeBeau. These information packets are something they can use to educate people in their communities about why they should avoid breed bans and what they should do instead to make their communities safer,” continues Mr. Mead.

In conjunction with the models laws, information packets that include fact sheets on spay/neuter, anti-tethering, proper socialization & training, and dog parks; there is also a full PowerPoint presentation outlining a step by step approach to a safer community!

The Best Friends’ program is really on a roll! Russ Mead was also the Keynote Speaker for the Canine Legislation Conference 2007, where he was able to touch so many animal advocates with this no-nonsense, humane approach to community safety – a program that addresses safety for all the members of a community!

The proof is in the pudding! Recently a rural, agricultural community in Utah called Cedar City looked at all the facts, heard arguments from both pro-BSL constituents and Mr. Mead’s presentation on the Best Friends’ program and decided to forgo BSL in favor of gaining a truly safer community. Best Friends will continue to work with local animal advocates to help pass Community Safety programs instead of BSL!

For resources on the Best Friends’ Program click here

image of Sonny courtesy Clay Myers, Best Friends Animal Society; illustration courtesy Marc Brown, Best Friends Animal Society

Comments

Posted February 26, 2008, 3:0PM by bevp01

Bravo!!!!

Wonderful article! I printed and saved it to send with my legislator letters.

Bev

Posted October 15, 2007, 5:10PM by rmlamasney25

Well done, bullylover. You hit it exactly right in my opinion: sensationalism is the reason and money/profit is the root.

Posted October 11, 2007, 2:46PM by bullylover

Yaaay!
As a pitbull owner, BSL really scares me- and I've been trying very hard to educate people about this very people soft breed.
I wrote my final English paper on the subject and while gathering the stats I began to see the roots of the fear and ignorance regarding these animals. Ignorance doesn't mean stupid, it just means "not knowing".
Why are people so afraid of the breed? The answer is very simple when the numbers come in- it's the media.
Our media has a frightening amount of control over what people think and has turned into a business where the bottom line (making money) matters more than the facts. Sensationalism is the buzz-word here, not education by any means.
I researched story after story that had killer Pitbull headlines but upon inspection, it wasn't even a Pitbull that inflicted the damage decribed. One story claimed "Pitbull mauls baby" but when you read it, it was the family's American Bulldog that mauled the child and the Pitbull attacked the other dog!!! There are many stories like this one. A lot of the articles
show pictures of the "Pitbulls"- that are CLEARLY
not even close to being one!
I discovered that Pitbulls make up about 4% of dog bites yet 99% of the media reports. And while a story of a lab attacking someone goes on the back page, the "killer Pitbull" stories get run over and over and picked up by every station, every paper, all over the internet, etc.
With the money hungry media at the helm, no wonder people are so afraid of these wonderful animals.
The staggering statistics are that about 85% of dogs that attack are un-neutered males regardless of breed. About 3/4 of the victims are under the age of 12, and out of those, a very high number were attacked by chained (unsocialized) dogs.
Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out the best way to prevent attacks?
I'm so glad that Best Friends is involved in this- thank you thank you thank you- from my sweet gentle pitbull and his guardian.