Looking for safety in all the wrong places: India’s new ban on 23 dog breeds cannot succeed
Thankfully, banning dogs of certain breeds is increasingly rare. But when this choice is made, as with the recent national BSL legislation in India, we are reminded of some of the reasons that it simply cannot help prevent dog bite injuries: Behavioral genetic science shows conclusively that a dog’s breed simply cannot predict anything about […]
Embracing Dogs as Individuals at the Latest Insurance Conference
Legislators want to focus more on responsible dog ownership than breed restrictions in home insurance.
Red herrings and just plain lies: Insurance companies vs. dog loving families
There has been much discussion lately explaining how denial of insurance coverage based on the breed of one’s family dog is a practice that discriminates against and unduly penalizes both less affluent customers and people of color.
Welcome to the Dog Park: No Dogs Allowed
Florida dog park opens, but dogs that act like dogs are prohibited
When Doctors Stray Outside of Expertise
Study finds that the literature on dog bites written by human health care professionals is rife with distortions and errors, and laden with rhetorical devices that mischaracterize dog behavior and grossly overstate the actual risk of dog bite injuries.
Breed-Specific Legislation is myth-based and ineffective according to the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB)
AVSAB released a position statement expressing their opposition to breed-specific legislation.
Breed-specific legislation on the decline
Breed-Specific Legislation on the Decline : 5 more states no longer allow BSL & more than 7x as many U.S. Municipalities repealed or rejected proposed BSL, than enacted it between: January 2012 – May 2014. The national trend is moving steadily away from breed-specific legislation (BSL) and toward breed neutral laws that hold all owners equally […]
Maryland General Assembly Says No to Dog Owner Discrimination, Passes Effective Breed Neutral Liability
On April 3, 2014, the Maryland House of Delegates gave final approval to breed neutral dog bite liability legislation that would abrogate the 2012 Court of Appeals ruling in Tracey v. Solesky, which imposed “breed”-specific liability on dog owners, custodians, and landlords. From the beginning, Maryland residents and lawmakers have been in agreement that the […]
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), […]
HSUS “Pets for Life” toolkit: empowering pet owners in under-served areas and yielding significant results for animals in the creation of humane communities
All of us who love dogs – whether we live with them, raise them, provide professional services for them, or use them for a purpose – recognize the value they hold in our society. Yet the human-canine bond may be weakened by a disparate amount of resources and support available to human beings in under-served […]