The city of Platteville, WI is considering a proposal that would ban all pit bulls, pit dog, or pit bull terriers. Will you sign my petition to help stop this?
People often hear of a bite, witness a bite or even a fatality and automatically label the dog a pit bull. This has to do with misinformation and lack of education. Most breed-specific laws develop when a dog bite incident or attack occurs in order to improve public safety or decrease dog bite incident. Breed specific legislation does not protect residents from getting bitten. These ordinances are expensive to carry out and they not only hurt the dogs, but the family and community as well.
Pit bulls are most commonly believed to be responsible for most dog attacks because the average person can't accurately identify a real pit bull. Veterinarians and other professionals working with dogs routinely admit that American Bulldogs, Presa Canarios, Dogo Argentinos, and Boxers are commonly mistaken as "pit bulls" when bites are reported because it is challenging when it comes to classifying a real pit bull.
Humanesociety.org states, " Professional animal expert organizations, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, have found that no breed is more dangerous than another. Identifying breeds is often subjective and unreliable. For example, the term “pit bull” usually encompasses three separate breeds, along with any mixes of those breeds."
Not to mention the toll it takes on shelters and the families of dogs that did no harm in the first place. Humanesociety.org also states, " Underfunded animal-control agencies bear the brunt of the burden, as BSL creates unrealistic mandates that take dogs out of homes and into shelters. These shelters then must endure the burden of housing and often euthanizing family dogs who posed no bite risk."
Source for information:
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/breed-specific-legislation/fact_sheets/breed-specific-legislation-flaws.html
