Back in the early 90s, many European countries began enacting breeds on certain breeds of dogs based on the typical fear and hysteria -- particularly about "fighting breeds" at that time. The breed bans have proven to be a failure in all counts because they never addresssed problems related to responsible ownership issues, and instead focused on the dogs. The dogs were never the problem...it was always the owners.
They are finally doing something about it.
Last year, Italy repealed their breed bans -- that at one time had included nearly 100 breeds of dogs. Now it includes zero. Italy followed The Netherlands, who originally banned 'pit bulls' in 1993, eventually added Rottweilers in 2000, and then scrapped the whole thing to focus the owners rather than the dogs in 2008.
Meanwhile, the UK's ban on four breeds of dogs has actually appeared to INCREASE their demand among the problem owners. While the point of the UK Dangerous Dogs Act (originally passed in 1991), was to eventually eliminate these breeds of dogs from the island, it has not had that effect. In fact, it appears that many of the thugs/lowlifes have gravitated toward the dogs because the idea of having an "outlawed breed" was more appealing to them. They have also seen an increase in the number of dog fighting incidences as well.
"Things are worse now than when the Dangerous Dogs Act was passed 18 years ago and I'm seeing more status dogs coming in for treatment than ever. These latest figures only prove what the RSPCA's inspectors and animal hospitals have suspected for a long time, that more and more people are using dogs as a means of intimidation," said David Grant of the RSPCA.
See, focusing on the dogs never works. It creates demand for the targeted breeds among the people you don't want to have them (because their being outlawed creats an appeal) -- and I've written about this before.
Meanwhile, regular owners become less educated on what really causes dog bites and think they can be less responsible because their "breed" isn't "dangerous".
All of this has led to the UK to have major attacks on a weekly basis, including a 28 year old man, and a five year old boy that were both attacked this week.
Since 1997, theUK has seen an over 50% increase in dog bites, while Scotland has seen an increase of over 150%.
With similar results seen in cities in the US that have passed similar legislation, it is amazing to me that some cities still pursue policy that has failed everywhere.
It's time we learn from what has happened in other places and insist on policies that WORK to improve public safety -- ie, targeting wreckless dog owners - -vs rehashing policy that has failed so often elsewhere.
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