White House Rejects Prince George's Breed Specific Dog Law!

Bo says NO! to BSL, so does his dad.

August 19, 2013:  GREENBELT, MARYLAND -- From the Top:  The White House has issued an official response to dog breed bans exactly like the one in effect in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

This is the Official White House Response to Breed Discriminatory Laws:

“We don't support breed-specific legislation -- research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources.

In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at twenty years of data about dog bites and human fatalities in the United States. They found that fatal attacks represent a very small proportion of dog bite injuries to people and that it's virtually impossible to calculate bite rates for specific breeds.

The CDC also noted that the types of people who look to exploit dogs aren't deterred by breed regulations -- when their communities establish a ban, these people just seek out new, unregulated breeds. And the simple fact is that dogs of any breed can become dangerous when they're intentionally or unintentionally raised to be aggressive.

For all those reasons, the CDC officially recommends against breed-specific legislation -- which they call inappropriate. You can read more from them here.

As an alternative to breed-specific policies, the CDC recommends a community-based approach to prevent dog bites. And ultimately, we think that's a much more promising way to build stronger communities of pets and pet owners.”

Source: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/breed-specific-legislation-bad-idea

We agree!

Prince George’s is a suburb of Washington, D.C.  With a population of almost 900,000 people, it is the second largest municipality with a breed ban in the United States.   If The White House response was shouted from the roof of the West Wing, County officials can hear it.  We ask the County Council to re-examine and repeal this law when they reconvene in September.

17 states now prohibit dog breed specific dangerous dog laws, with proposals in the pipelines for similar laws in other states.  Prince George’s County has determined its own 15-year breed ban costs hundreds of thousands of dollars each year with no measurable increase in public safety (Report of the Prince George’s County Vicious Animal Law Task Force, 2005).

Breed-specific measures such as the law in Prince George’s County, Maryland, often declare a particular dog as dangerous simply by its outward physical characteristics.  However, a number of studies indicate that, not only does a dog’s breed or appearance not portend behavior, but also that as much as 75% of visual dog identifications of “pit bulls” by animal professionals are WRONG.  The consequences of these mis-identifications in Prince George’s County are death or exile as hundreds and hundreds of beloved pets are seized from living rooms, often right out from under the embrace of young children, then killed by Prince George’s County government.  Usually for doing absolutely nothing wrong.

According to Ledy VanKavage, American Bar Association, Past Committee Chair, “People love their pets, no matter what their appearance. This is America. Responsible pet owners should be allowed to own whatever breed they want. They should not have to live in fear of their pets being seized and killed simply because of their appearance.”

To learn more about the Prince George's County dog breed ban, visit www.marylanddogfederation.com/local.  To support the effort to repeal the ban, you can click http://bit.ly.com/PGFamDogs to contribute.  Join us on www.facebook.com/marylanddogfederation and on Twitter @MDDogFed