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Scientific research, legal statements, whitepapers and other resources to support your efforts.
Breed restrictions, whether they are in legislation or in policy, are designed to exclude people, not dogs, from services and from communities at large. National Canine Research Council has complied the data and research to help you eliminate breed restrictions in your community.
Summary and Analysis: Dog Bites: Still a Problem? from National Canine Research Council
“The Responsible Pet Ownership Model is focused first on supporting and incentivizing responsible behavior in pet owners and second, discouraging problematic behavior.”
Cory A. Smith wrote this step by step guide on breed-neutral animal ordinances for Animal Sheltering Magazine in 2012. Years later, it’s proactive approach and focus on responsible pet ownership and accessible resources keep it relevant for anyone wanting to create a safe community for people and pets.
Read the article (pdf)
Collection of effective animal ordinances from National Canine Research Council
A Community Approach to Dog Bite Prevention (pdf) from the American Veterinary Medical Association
“BSL suffers from the fundamental, flawed presumption that breed reliably predicts vicious propensity. It draws from retrospective review of anecdotal evidence based on questionable phenotypic and genotypic identifications (not double-blind, randomized trials).”
– Adam Karp
Download and read Karp’s paper
Breed-specific legislation is costly. Millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on enforcing ineffective laws. Prince George’s County’s BSL has been in place since 1996. In 2001, it cost the county $560,000.
Read the case study (pdf)
Read statements from organizations and businesses on how breed-specific legislation is anti-science, damages the relationship between dogs and people, and doesn’t prove to keep communities safe.
You can share these statements with law and policymakers to show them how many reputable organizations do not endorse BSL.
Breed-Specific Legislation Map
Established Epidemiological Measure Shows Why Breed Bans Fail to Reduce Dog Bite Injury (pdf) from the National Canine Research Council
Ineffective Canine Policies from the National Canine Research Council
We Can’t Fix Human Problems by Fixing Dogs
Outdated Thinking Is Going to Hurt Dogs in South Carolina
Here’s What We Learned in South Carolina (podcast)