Breed Specific
Legislations, BSLs for short, are becoming a
reality in many communities and even entire
countries. BSLs encompass a wide range of
legislations from requiring special licensing or
accommodations for certain breeds of dogs to the
outright banning and elimination of them. This
article is not going to discuss the reason why
BSLs are wrong or ineffective: what it is going to
do is look at why all breeds need to get active
and fight. Just because your breed is not
mentioned in a ban does not mean it never will be.
Even the seemingly
innocuous laws requiring special licensing or
accommodations for a specific breed is a gateway
to tighter legislation and even a ban. Once a
breed is labeled as inherently dangerous and
needing certain provisions in order to be kept, it
is just a short step to a total ban. Once one
breed is restricted in some way, the door is
opened for other breeds. Look at what happened in
many regions of Germany.
When I first became
aware of BSLs in Germany, only a few breeds were
mentioned. As time went on, more and more breeds
were added. Then there were categories created:
Category I breeds are those to be banned
Category
II are breeds to be monitored and banned if needed
Category III, dogs over a certain height
or weight (over 40lbs or over 15.75 inches) that
are risky because they are not small.
Once the
door was opened with the call to ban a few breeds,
the only dogs NOT ending up restricted were the
smallest ones.
Scary to think how
out of hand the legislations became in such a
short period of time. When I look at my own
current four dogs, three are restricted according
to German law: one due to her breed (Great
Pyrenees), two due to their sizes (an Australian
Shepherd/Newfoundland cross and an oversized
Shetland Sheepdog). Who says only certain dogs are
ever banned and others will not be affected? When
was the last time anyone heard of Great Pyrenees
being restricted? In Germany, they are Category II
dogs. Any Category II dog is restricted for three
years from breeding, etc., and the breed can
become a Category I (basically banned) at any
time. Two of my other dogs are Category III dogs.
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