Bad Breeders and Breed Specific Legislation
Thanks to the unethical, unprincipled breeders who breed anything to anything and sell to anyone we now have Breed Specific Legislation in New Zealand.
Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) began with the fighting breeds once they became popular in street culture and were recklessly bred and sold cheaply to anyone who came along. See Pit Rules for the truth about the wrongly maligned fighting breeds. Having read this document you'll see why fighting dog owners insist that their dogs are naturally non aggressive toward people since man-aggressive dogs were of necessity destroyed. A fighting dog must be handled in the pit. But, as with any puppy peddler, the unethical breeder is not concerned about sound temperament or spotless pedigrees.
It is the ill-bred dogs belonging to incompetent and/or ignorant owners that have led to governments around the world indulging in their latest bad idea: BSL, a regime that punishes a dog for the misfortune of belonging to a dangerous owner.
Breed Specific Legislation is an insidious cancer which will spread here as it has elsewhere. In the U.S.A. today consideration is being given in some states to extending BSL to the Chow Chow, Akita, and Rottweiler along with the English Bull Terrier, English Staffordshire Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier. Who's breed is next?
BSL is anything but what is needed to address what is in reality a human control problem, and like so many of our bad laws, many are paying for the actions of a few.
If there is any doubt as to the ineffective, irrational and unjustifiable nature of BSL, go to BSL UK to see the results of a total breed ban in that country and to BSL Fallout to see how cruel it is for any dog remotely resembling the targeted breeds.
Between BSL, unscrupulous breeders, inadequate owners, dodgy registries, idealistic politicians, a mischievous media, and PETA and the HSUS' agenda to stop the ownership of domestic pets, the future of all domestic dogs is in real peril. Breed Specific Legislation fails to address causality but instead puts the burden upon the law-abiding registered owners for whom dog ownership will become more expensive and onerous.
We all need to be concerned about the future of our domestic pets and proactive in finding an effective solution to the problems caused by the bad owners/breeders among us who through ignorance, greed or stupidity are producing the dogs that politicians, the media and indeed society the world over is demanding an end to, but with ours along with them.
Go to our Links page for Pit Bull specialists, support and rescue groups, and resources. Lobby your politicians to repeal BSL and let them know that we expect them to lead the world in re-enacting rational legislation and to allow Animal Control authorities a realistic budget to target irresponsible owners and apply the dog control bylaws effectively, irrespective of an owner's chosen breed.
Breed Specific Legislation isn't just bad law, it is one of the most polarising laws the world has seen in recent times.
Below are two web sites which graphically exemplify the reactions at either end of the dog love/hate continuum. Dogsbite.org describes graphic dog attacks describing only incidents resulting in serious injury and only when the dog is a Pit Bull, while RDOW on their website doggedly post material to discredit the pro-BSL lobby and the anti-pet agenda.
