A recent Time Magazine article titled “The Problem With Pit Bulls” elicited a torrent of protests from supporters of pit bull terrier-type dogs, most of which are actually mixes of several breeds. It didn’t help that the article was in response to a now-discredited report that a child who had been bitten in the face by three pit bulls had been asked to leave a KFC restaurant because her appearance was upsetting to customers. Due to a variety of factors, pit bull-type dogs fill the shelters in Philadelphia and most of the rest of the Northeast and die in shelters at rates much higher than other breeds. The reputation of pits as tenacious dogs who attack without warning means there are fewer families willing to adopt them and fewer landlords willing to permit tenants to own them. But is breed (or, more accurately, a shelter’s best guess as to a predominant breed) a reliable way to predict whether a dog is likely to be a danger to humans or other pets? Pennsylvania has answered that question with a resounding “no.”
State and local legislatures deal with injuries caused by domestic dogs in one of two ways: dangerous dog laws or so-called “breed-specific laws.” Dangerous dog laws and breed-specific laws approach the problem of dog bites from starkly different perspectives. Dangerous dog laws recognize that there is no single predictor of a dog’s aggressiveness and typically provide for evaluative proceedings that consider several factors including temperament, socialization history, past aggression toward humans or other animals and physical condition of the animal. Dogs declared to be dangerous in these proceedings may, depending on the law involved, be confiscated and/or euthanized or, if returned to their owners, they often must live under specific conditions of confinement.
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