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All Bark and Fiscal Bite—Are Breed-Discriminatory Laws Effective? <br /> by Leda' VanKavage <br /> avage <br /> A dog attacks, and city-council members want the city attorney to react— <br /> sometimes by drafting an ordinance that restricts or outlaws a specific breed <br /> of dog, most often the maligned pit bull. After such an ordinance is passed, <br /> authorities must then ferret out and kill any dog that slightly resembles a pit <br /> bull. Prince George's County Maryland spends approximately $560,000 <br /> every two years enforcing its ban. Miami-Dade County impounds and kills *. <br /> around 800 pit bulls a year, despite a ban dating back to the 1980s, resulting <br /> in a significant fiscal impact. <br /> Given the tremendous costs associated with breed-discriminatory laws, are <br /> they a prudent approach to community safety or a costly red herring? With <br /> passage of such ordinances comes a host of questions such as: How do you prove in court the <br /> identity of a mixed-breed dog? What sort of training do your animal-control or law-enforcement <br /> officers have regarding breed identification? If they aren't trained in breed identification, is a <br /> veterinarian employed to determine whether a dog is a certain breed? Now that DNA testing is <br /> available, are courts going to require the government to pay for such testing before confiscating and <br /> destroying citizens' property (i.e., their dogs)? <br /> Missing the Mark by Targeting Pit Bulls <br /> Effective public lawyers counsel their clients to make decisions based on research and valid <br /> statistics, not emotion. So why the modern-day witch hunt concerning pit bulls? Karen Deli se, <br /> author of"Fatal Dog Attacks" and "The Pit Bull Placebo," examined news stories regarding dog <br /> attacks that occurred during four days in August 2007. The results are telling: <br /> • On Aug. 18, 2007: A Labrador mix attacked a 70-year-old man, sending him to the hospital in <br /> critical condition. Police officers arrived at the scene, and the dog was shot after charging the <br /> officers. This incident was reported in one article and only in the local paper. <br /> • On Aug. 19, 2007: A 16-month-old child received fatal head and neck injuries after being attacked <br /> by a mixed-breed dog. This attack was reported two times by the local paper. <br /> o On Aug. 20, 2007: A 6-year-old boy was hospitalized after having his ear torn off and receiving <br /> severe bites to the head by a medium-sized mixed-breed dog. This attack was reported in one article <br /> and only in the local paper. <br /> • On Aug. 21, 2007: A 59-year-old woman was attacked in her home while trying to break up a dog <br /> fight involving her neighbor's Jack Russell terrier and two pit bulls. The pit bulls had broken off <br /> their chains and followed her neighbor's Jack Russell terrier in through her dog door. She was <br /> hospitalized with severe injuries. Her dog was not injured. This attack was reported in more than <br /> 230 articles in national and international newspapers and on major television news networks, <br /> including CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. <br /> Thus, during those four days, four dog attacks made the news—including a fatality involving a <br /> mixed-breed dog—but only the incident involving the pit bulls captured national attention. <br /> Given the hype, it isn't a surprise that public lawyers may be asked to research and draft ordinances <br />