The Michael Vick Effect. Do Dog Fights Lead to Breed Specific Legislation?

Have you heard of breed specific legislation? Breed specific legislation is the enacting of laws that deal solely with specific dog breeds. For example, in some areas of the world, Pit Bulls are not legal. Other areas of the world call for the Rottweiler to only be allowed on the street while wearing a muzzle. Is breed specific legislation fair?

Breed specific legislation (or BSL) should concern many of you. If you are the owner of a Pit Bull, Rottweiler, Doberman, German Shepherd, American Staffordshire Terrier, Chow Chow, Presa Canario or other such breed there is a chance that BSL is in the works in your community to limit your ownership rights regarding these breeds. But why does it happen?

If we were to dissect the root cause of BSL I think we would find that it basically boils down to two major sources.

1. Irresponsible dog owners. For those of you who have been following the Michael Vick case as of late you know that their exist dog owners who do insanely stupid things with their dogs. Mike Vick has admitted his role in dog fighting rings and in the brutal killing of several pit bulls. It is a horrible thing that he did. His life will forever be affected thanks to his horrific acts. Unfortunately the lives of many Pit Bulls will be affected as well because this news story plants further evidence in the minds of the public that Pit Bulls are vicious creatures.

The Vick case is simply the latest. We have seen many stories over the years of Pit Bull attacks or Rottweiler maulings. At the root of each case you will find irresponsible dog owners who have created monsters due to lack of socialization, training, and poor breeding practices.

2. Irresponsible media reporting. The media loves to put a sensationalistic story in the news. They rarely get the facts right, however. Recently a story came out from the estate of Hollywood actor, Ving Rhames. It was reported that a caretaker for his estate was brutally killed by the actor’s vicious dogs. Media outlets from around the world picked up the story and reported that this man had been viciously attacked and killed by several of Rhames’ dogs. That just wasn’t the case. A few days later the real story emerged. When animal control arrived on the scene they found the dead man surrounded by dogs. Examination of the body showed superficial scratching of the skin that occurred while the dogs were nosing around and investigating the man. The caretaker had died of a heart attack and the dogs were merely trying to rouse the man.

Did you know that some of the worst breeds for biting children are Poodles and Cocker Spaniels? You won’t hear about that in the news because it is not sensationalistic enough. The reality is that any poorly trained and poorly socialized dog is capable of biting. The media will only report it, however, if the dog in question is of a certain breed.

So is BSL fair? As long as there are irresponsible dog owners I think there need to be laws in place to prevent these animals from doing harm to us and our children. As a public, however, we need to be instrumental in guiding legislation so that the good dog owners with the good dogs are not lumped in with the bad.