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Around and around we go!

 After 20+ years of ENDLESSLY playing the breed ID game, haven’t we had enough?  Great article on Dogsbite.org the other day.  I left some comments.

The gist of it is, dog nuts in the UK have found several creative ways to side-step / cheat on the breed restrictions there.  The UK dangerous dogs act of 1991 banned the following 4 breeds:  Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Pit Bull Terrier and Japanese Tosa.   Lets pause for a moment:  Is the Japanese Tosa a popular dog breed anywhere?  Who knew. 

In any case, UK dog nuts and power breed fanatics have been cross-breeding, designer breeding, and discovering various other ways to side step this restriction.  This is in addition to the fact that you can still own pit bulls in the UK if certain conditions are met.  Thank dog for that! 

This illustrates one problem with trying to limit or restrict a couple dog breeds:   Dog nuts will figure out a way to mix their breed of choice *just enough* to side step the ban, adopt a power dog not on the list (i.e. Presa Canario), or just go ahead and create a new breed.  Think about it:  A dog breed is essentially just a consumer product line.  The producers can create new lines all they want.   How many brands of underarm deodorant could we have?  Think about that. 

Note the operative words above include “one problem”.  Another problem is enforcement.  As long as the policy is to give Fido a pass on everything, enforcement is going to be very lax. 

Many times over the past 10 years I have made the point that allowing large (40+ lb) dogs in cities and residential areas is grossly unreasonable.   How do you justify that when EVERY other animal in these areas is either limited to small pets (reptiles, cats, etc… ) or zoned out entirely (goats, sheep, horses, etc…).   If anything, you would restrict large dogs in cities as an animal welfare measure. 

To those who remark about their Great Dane, St. Bernard, etc…. “My Fido is super sweet!  He’d never harm a fly!”.   Yes, precisely the same words uttered by every Pit Bull fanatic in existence.  Do you even hear yourselves?   Let me ask you something:  Could you stop your dog from assaulting someone?  If Fido knocks someone over, that could injure them pretty badly.  Are you willing to take responsibility for that?   How about if I push YOU over onto the concrete?   How about this:  Is keeping a bunch of St. Bernards in a 400 square foot downtown apartment a good idea?

So, with all that said, here is my proposition:  Lets limit ALL pets in cities and residential areas to 35 lbs or less.  "Limit" meaning that you would need a variance to exceed the threshold.  THIS puts an END to all of these endless rounds of breed ID Bull Shit!   And while we are at it, lets de-normalize assault-by-dog.