What is Breed Specific Legislation (BSL)?
Basically, BSL is a law that is based on looking at the breed of a certain dog rather than the behavior of one specific animal. It affects the rights of individuals to own a certain type of dog. Breed bans mean that entire breeds of dogs are targeted, rather than targeting the responsibilities of the owner of an individual dog. BSL is much like racial profiling, in that it fails to take into consideration the actions of the individual, preferring to generalize it to the entire race/breed. BSL is seen by many to be a knee-jerk reaction of politicians to dog bite occurrences. No education or knowledge of the breed is behind these decisions. People overreact to dog bites, specifically when ‘Pit Bulls’ are involved, and tend to howl for the euthanasia of the animal rather than directing their attention to the details surrounding the incident. In most cases, the dog has been kept in the yard on a chain and under socialized; the dog has been left alone with a child unsupervised (which should
