Florida animal services agency strikes breed labels from kennel cards and website
Evidence has mounted in recent years that guesses as to a dog’s breed or breeds usually do not correspond with breed identification using DNA technology. Different observers, even those engaged in dog-related professions, frequently disagree with each other when looking at the same dog. Animal behavior and ethology studies have demonstrated that we cannot reliably […]
Neuroscience May Confirm What Many Dog Lovers Already Know
Dog owners regularly attribute emotions such as love and loyalty to their pets, and may be just as regularly dismissed for doing so. The Dog Project, being conducted by Dr. Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University in Atlanta, has detected canine brain activity suggesting that dog owners may have the last laugh. Dr. Berns […]
Cloning Shows That All Dogs Are Individuals
Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper is reporting that a Korean company will be offering one lucky British dog owner a chance to have his or her dog cloned for free.[1] While the price is right – the Sooam Biotech’s customary fee for cloning a dog is just north of $100,000 – geneticists are cautioning that the […]
Assumptions about future behavior of shelter dogs seen as food aggressive are unfounded.
Animal shelters may conduct what they describe as behavioral evaluations of the dogs they receive, in order to discover what they presume will be problem behaviors when the dogs are adopted into new homes. Among the behaviors that evaluations are designed to detect are those labeled “food aggression.” The behaviors described by that term include […]
Obama Administration opposes breed specific legislation (BSL)
In an unprecedented initiative, the White House released a statement announcing that the Obama Administration does not support breed-specific legislation (BSL). The statement was a response to an anti-BSL petition created in December 2012, which quickly garnered more than 30,000 pet-loving signatures. Referring to the position taken more than a decade ago by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), […]
Janis Bradley joins National Canine Research Council
Author and educator Janis Bradley has joined National Canine Research Council as Associate Director of Communications and Publications. In addition to serving as an academic liaison, and reporting on current developments in scientific research and public policy, Janis will oversee NCRC research projects. “Science has more and more to tell us about dogs and their unique […]
Rhode Island Becomes Third State This Year to Preempt Breed-Specific Legislation.
Governor Lincoln Chafee has signed[1] into law a bill that prohibits any Rhode Island city or town from regulating dogs or cats on the basis of breed. Rhode Island becomes the third state this year, and the 16th state overall, to enact a breed preemption statute. The law took effect immediately upon Governor Chafee’s signature. […]
Of Mice and Dogs: Their Personalities May Be Up To Us
Most of us easily acknowledge the likelihood that specific behaviors can be influenced by learning, in ourselves and in other species, including the one closest to us, our companion dogs. We can learn to tie our shoes, and our dogs can learn to walk next to us. We can even learn rules of etiquette and […]
Connecticut joins state ranks preempting breed-specific laws
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has signed a bill that preempts municipalities from regulating dogs on the basis of breed. HB6311, which was co-sponsored by 31 state representatives and senators, addressed only the issue of breed-specific legislation. It provides that “no municipality shall adopt breed-specific dog ordinances.” HB6311 sailed through the state legislature, virtually unopposed. The […]
Nevada law prohibiting BSL signed by the Governor.
Nevada will become the 14th state to preempt its towns and counties from discriminating against dogs on the basis of breed or appearance. Governor Brian Sandoval has signed Assembly Bill No. 110, which both describes the circumstances under which local authority can declare an individual dog to be dangerous or vicious, and prohibits a local […]