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Policy Library

Scientific research, legal statements, whitepapers and other resources to support your efforts.​

Resources to help end Breed restrictions

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. 

 

Check out more specific info on:

Breed Specific Legislation

Housing Restrictions

Breeds and Behavior

Visual Breed Identification

Dog-Related Injuries

Breed Restrictions & Discrimination

The Responsible Pet Ownership Model

A case study of Calgary’s animal ordinances

“The Responsible Pet Ownership Model is focused first on supporting and incentivizing responsible behavior in pet owners and second, discouraging problematic behavior.”

Download the pdf

Out of the Past: Updating Your Animal Control Ordinances

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)

Additional Guidelines

Collection of effective animal ordinances from National Canine Research Council

Pets for Life

A Community Approach to Dog Bite Prevention (pdf) from the American Veterinary Medical Association

Down to a Science

“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

Case Study: the Financial Cost of BSL

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)

Statements from organizations about BSL

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.

View the statements

Listen to an episode of our podcast

Further Reading

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)