As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, the White House is busy cranking-out replies to petitions which met the 25k signature criteria (since raised to 100k) on their We The People widget. TTAG reader dmac received a heads-up on the Administration’s response to a canine-o-centric petition (“Ban and outlaw Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) in the United States of America on a Federal level!”) See if you can guess why he brought it to your attention . . .
Breed-Specific Legislation Is a Bad Idea
Thanks for your petition.
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.
Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.
And here’s dmac’s recap:
-Banning assault dogs is ineffective and a waste of resources.
-Bad people do bad things with no regard for the law.
-Training/Education the best way to increase safety.
This would be funny if it weren’t so frustrating.