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Happy Dog Breed Independence to all the South Dakota pups out there! Today marks the first day in South Dakota where Breed Specific Legislation will no longer be tolerated by municipalities within the state.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Breed Specific Legislation (BSL), there is a set of laws that prohibit pet guardians from having certain breeds of dogs – mainly pit bulls or other breeds confused with pit bulls are the victims of this sort of legislation. These breeds of dogs have gotten a bad reputation for being overly aggressive or in someway a threat to public safety, leading to incredible injustice and inappropriate fears that have been assigned to these dogs.
Pit bulls and other breeds similar to pit’s are the targets of cruel humans who abuse the dog’s natural sense of loyalty and desire to please by turning them into fighting dogs who are subject to unimaginable violence. The case of a bad guardian turning a good dog into something they were never born to be, pit bulls and other breeds forced into fighting rings have been pigeon-holed into a category of “dangerous” animals that are unfit to be companion animals.
This could not be farther from the case and today South Dakota is taking measures to ensure that no dog is discriminated against because of stereotypes or false narratives. BSL is on a decline nationwide as more and more people realize the injustice surrounding these laws.
Many animal rights campaigners, including Ray the Vicktory Dog, one of Michael Vick’s former dogs, joined in the celebration of this anti-discrimination legislation, hailing this as a small victory that will one day spread across the country.
Image source: Ray the Vicktory Dog/Facebook
This is confused morality. People are acting as though dog breed discrimination IS THE SAME as religious or race discrimination. The problem is that breeds were, and are, bred for specific purposes. A herding dog–well, it herds and no, it does not need to be trained to have that instinct (as in a specific gene/genes). ALL TERRIERS, for example, are supposed to be aggressive. No, I did not hate on terriers–heck, I like em. Early dog breeders saw that (by the way, if you ever go to all breed, or specialty dog show, terriers receive demerits if they are NOT aggressive) if they bred the largest TERRIER they could find with the English Bulldog (for those big old jaws) that they could produce–guess what? The Pit Bull TERRIER. So this none sense about breed discrimination IS none sense. This breed leads our nation in infant mortality–how does that grab you? And you claim it is all "how they are trained"–are you nuts? Use rational thought, you may mean well, but this is seriously devoid of reason. Am I saying you can\’t abuse a dog? No, and training does help, but a pit only does what it was BRED to do, and NO, NO, NO, you don\’t have to train any pit to have aggressive tendencies (fact), or the big jaws (fact). My final appeal to you readers: IF you insist it is all about how they are trained, then let me ask you this. Do you agree that ANY dog–hurt, sick, old, injured, COULD bite, then why or why would you want a breed CAPABLE of taking a poor child\’s head off? What are you thinking in defending this or any large, aggressive canine? USE YOUR HEAD, THE DEATH OF CHILDREN IS ON YOUR CONSCIENCE IN THE NAME OF BEING KIND HEARTED.
WTG Congratulations and all that made this possible,Down with BSL.
Yay! So happy about this! What fantastic progress. Thank you, South Dakota (and especially everyone who advocated for an end to BSL)!