The Negative Effects of Breed Specific Legislation on Man's Best Friend

The Negative Effects of Breed Specific Legislation on Man's Best Friend.

Audience:

My audience is any apartment or property management company. In 2010, 33.1% of Americans were renters. Due to the real-estate crisis and economic crash, I believe that number is even higher. More and more people are renting, but are met with an unusual request of some management companies, get rid of your dog or you're out. Imagine if you had to sacrifice your beloved family pet, just to move into more economic housing. As a result of my speech, my audience will agree that Breed Specific Legislation is nothing more than discrimination, and useless in the pursuit of preventing dog attacks.

Introduction:

(Picture of Penny) Would any body like to guess what kind of dog this is?

She's a German Sheppard, Collie, Wolf mix. But we'll get to more of that in a second.

I've been a renter since moving out of my parent's home several years ago. And as a young, single gal I wanted to get a dog, for company and protection. But I've come to notice, as I'm sure many of you have, the unnecessary breed bans that are in place in our society today. Upon many, are the breed restrictions that many apartment complexes and property management companies put in place, in an attempt at residence safety. But I would like to argue that it is not the dog's genetic makeup that makes a dog aggressive or non-aggressive; it is the dog owner that creates the problem with a dog's behavior.

Reason 1: Personal experience

The dog pictured before, is, as you might have guessed, my own dog. And I'm proud to say, is a rescue, though not from a shelter. I know her genetic makeup due to how I got her in the first place. My friend's mom rescued a litter of puppies from a neighbor's house after calling the cops on the neighbors for animal cruelty. It was later discovered that the owners had a Collie/Wolf mix who they were trying to mate with another wolf hybrid dog in the neighborhood. They thought it had worked, but when the puppies were born, they came out looking like German Shepherds. Since my friend's parents had several German Shepherds of their own, it was assumed that one of their dogs had gotten to the mom and impregnated her. The neighbors had abandoned the puppies in the desert between the two properties. They were not nice people, to say the least. We thoroughly believe that before abandoning the puppies, they were beaten. This was evident to us in the way that all the puppies were extremely skittish and seemingly untrusting of any human contact at first. It took a lot of time and positive training to get her to the point she is now; a happy and loving dog.

It is because of those people that she was ever skittish and untrusting. Not because she was part Sheppard, or part Wolf.

However, even though I know she does not act like a wild animal,

...