RDOWS Statement on Breed Specific Legislation

RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNERS OF THE WESTERN STATES P.O. Box 1406 Newport, WA 99156
POSITION STATEMENT ON BREED SPECIFIC LEGISLATION ã Responsible Dog Owners of the Western States opposes breed specific legislation (BSL) on legal, on moral grounds, and upon the Rules of Reason. Our position is that every dog owner is responsible for protecting the public from his/her dog. Our research shows that in the majority of severe or fatal dog attacks there had been numerous, previous reports made to Animal Control that were not acted upon. Our research further shows that as shocking, and traumatic as severe or fatal dog attacks are, they are relatively uncommon occurrences in comparison to other causes of severe injury, or fatalities in the United States, given that the vast majority of Americans are dog owners. MORALITY · BSL is based upon the urban myth of the "pit bull", which is not a recognized breed of dog. Under the guise of banning "pit bulls" any breed may be thus identified. There are at least seventy-five actual breeds, plus any mixed breed now either banned from ownership, or restricted in ownership in the United States. That is about 1/5 of all recognized breeds. · BSL is inflammatory, and is based upon unproven beliefs, not facts. · BSL is under inclusive in that it only recognizes a threat to society from certain breeds, or mixed breeds of dogs. · BSL is over inclusive, as dogs are as varied within their breed, as are human beings within our ethnicity. · BSL by stipulating, and naming specific breeds as being dangerous indemnifies all of the unnamed breeds as being safe by exclusion. · BSL creates a false sense of public safety. · BSL does not address the irresponsible dog owner. · BSL punishes the law abiding dog owner. · BSL orders the death of dogs based solely upon their physical appearance. · BSL assumes that human beings are inferior to, and incapable of properly maintaining dogs of specific breeds, or appearance. POSITION STATEMENT ON BREED SPECIFIC LEGISLATION ã Page II LEGALITY · BSL has been ruled unconstitutional in Court venues across the United States on grounds ranging from vagueness, to an infringement of property rights, to equal treatment, equal protection. · Dogs have been the domesticated traditional property of human beings for well over thirty-five thousand years. This tradition gives legal standing to dog owners based upon the IX Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States of America. · BSL violates the rights granted under the IV Amendment to the Bill of Rights. · BSL violates the rights granted under the V Amendment of the Bill of Rights. · BSL violates the rights granted under VI Amendment to the Bill of Rights. · BSL violates the rights granted under VIII Amendment to the Bill of Rights. · BSL violates the rights granted under XIV Amendment to the Bill of Rights. · BSL creates a whole new criminal class, the dog owner. · BSL sets a legal precedent that unchallenged empowers the enacting body to add any, or all other dog breeds, or even domestic species of animals to the prohibition on ownership. RULE OF REASON Laws must be reasonable. It is not reasonable to write animal behaviors, legal punishments, and criminal labels for animals into statutes that are enacted to structure human society. Animals must not be criminalized under laws that are intended to protect human rights, and to control human behaviors. It is unreasonable to write animal behavior into laws that no animal has the capacity to understand, answer to, or to function under. It is unreasonable to mete out criminal labels to animals, i.e. dangerous, or potentially dangerous. It is unreasonable to proscribe punishments to animals under our laws. It is unreasonable to remove the human owner from blame, or culpability for the actions of his/her animal(s). It is unreasonable to assume that every dog of a given breed, or physical appearance will behave in exactly the same manner. It is unreasonable to assume that every owner of every dog of a given breed, or physical appearance is irresponsible, negligent, or careless with their animal(s). Human error, carelessness, or negligence is the underlying factor behind every dog attack. Given the actual figures of severe dog attacks, or fatalities related to dog attacks per capita in the United States of America, dogs are not the threat to human life that the sensationalistic media, and urban myth would portray