Imagine not being able to own a Saint Bernard, a Great Dane, a German Sheppard or even an American Bulldog. Not because your mom or dad said no, but because they were banned. One day this thought may very well become a reality, all due to the breed specific legislation. Breed specific legislation is an act in which a certain breed of dog is banned from being reproduced or even owned in certain areas. This legislation mostly focuses on breeds traditionally known as "dangerous," or those that have demonstrated particular propensities for aggression and violent behavior (www.animallaw.info/articles). Though, there are many for this banning of certain breeds, but many are also against the idea; including President Obama. Along with Obama I too am against this act for many of reasons; it will not prevent dog attacks all together. By implementing the breed specific legislation, it is not going to change anything because the dog itself is not just the problem; the owners are a big part of it as well.
First off, dogs are a product of what their owners make them. There are 78.2 million dogs owned in the United States alone and out that only 4.8 million have attacked; that is 12% of the population of dogs (www.humanesociety.org). Moreover, out of the 4.8 million dogs that have attacked most of them were raised and trained to attack by their owners. In the United States alone, dogfighting has been a big issue within urban areas. Dogs are put in a small closed off area to fight one another until one dog can no longer fight. The most common dog to be involved in a dogfight, and the number one dog to be banned, is commonly known as the Pit bull. What many people do not know though, is that the pit bull isn’t just one breed of dog. The American pit bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and bulldog are all referred to as pit bulls, as well. In all of the research conducted, it has shown that pit bulls are very energetic, strong and loving dogs that nonetheless are lap dogs that only want to please their owners. However, that reputation has been stripped from them because of the actions of their abusive owners. In order to train these dogs’ trainers go to more than drastic measures. It has been recorded, “that to enhance aggressiveness, the dogs are frequently beaten and antagonized. They may also be starved” (www.howstuffworks.com). According to, Humanesociety.org there are many types of aggression in dogs, some known as: fear-motivated aggression, protective, territorial, possessive aggression, and redirected aggression. Fear-motivated aggression is defined as the defensive reaction and occurs when a dog believes he is in danger of being harmed. When a dog attacks it is easy to point fingers at the dog because it nonetheless did do it, but when looking at the underlying cause of why the dog did it, most times it is linked to how the owner has treated them in the past and how they were brought up.
Of course, not all dogs that attack are in dogfighting but there are many other causes to why they are so aggressive. Aggression from dogs can also occur from neglect, abuse, diet, aggressive play, and because it is in their nature of habit. By neglecting a dog, in some cases they are being neglected from, as what we say “the real world”. We say that because they are not exposed to children, other animals, real world situations like people trying to pet them or even play with them. The dog is so unfamiliar with all of this that they get scared and caught off guard very easily when encountered by any of it or even the smallest dose of it. Once a dog is scared they can react in one of two ways, by hiding or by attacking. In most cases they attack whatever it is that they are not use to, as a defense mechanism. Banning certain breeds of dogs wont stop the attacks, it may lessen them by a small number but will never completely stop. Once a certain breed is gone the abusive owner will more than likely just move on to a new breed and cause the same harm which will lead to more attacks. Which is why the breed-specific legislation will not help in making communities safer for anyone.
A main reason breed specific legislation is enforced is because it is believed to make communities safer for everyone; but is it really? There have been many cities within the United States that have enforced these laws but also different places around the world have done the same including: Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada. In those areas of the world it has shown that breed specific legislation has not made communities safer. In Italy they abolished its breed-specific regulations due to the findings that, “The measures adopted in the previous laws had no scientific basis. Dangerous breeds do not exist” according to Italy’s undersecretary, Francesca Martini. In Canada, the Netherlands, Denver and Florida they have actually found an increase in dog attacks when enforcing the breed specific legislation (www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com). Even though many people believe breed specific legislation should be put in place in order to reduce the number of dog attacks, it turns out that it is not that of a specific breed that causes the problems, but of the owners that are the problems. Through research it was found that there are many underlying reasons to why dogs are more aggressive than others and to why they attack. Some reasons are, that it was the owners who manipulated the dogs into being aggressive, it was the upbringing of the dog, the dog may have been neglected or chained up, there are many reasons that play into why dogs are aggressive. Also, implementing the breed specific legislation is a waste of time since it has been shown in different parts of the world that these specific laws have failed to lower the amount of dog attacks while instead they have been raising instead. One needs to properly treat their dog, take time to make the dog comfortable in certain settings, socialize the dog more in order to end dog attacks; banning certain breeds of dogs will just lead to devastation within families for getting a member of their family taken away and killed. Because in the end a dog is not only mans best friend, but a member of loving families.

Annotated Bibliography
Campbell, Dana M. "Pit Bull Bans: The State of Breed–Specific Legislation." Pit Bull Bans: The State of Breed–Specific Legislation. N.p., 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.
This article stated why breed specific legislation didn’t work out through out different parts of the world. Also, gave different examples of where it wasn’t agreed with and who didn’t agree with the legislation. It too is against breed specific legislation. Also within the article it gave alternative ways to how to deal with dogs and their aggression rather than just banning the specific breed that is targeted. Fiala, Jennifer. (2007). “Louisville nixes breed ban from dangerous dog law”: The Newsmagazine Of Veterinary Medicine. Vol. 38 (1), pg.19.
This was an article that briefly spoke of two incidents when two individuals passed away from a dog attack. It also spoke about a specific incident when a woman saved her son when he was being attacked and then she ended up being the victim. Through out the article it kept arguing that banning breeds isn’t the issue, but the owners are. All through out the country there have been cities banning certain dogs and no results coming from the bans.
Patronek, Gary J., Margaret Slater, and Amy Marder. (2010). "Use of a Number-needed- to ban calculation to Illustrate Limitations of Breed-specific Legislation in Decreasing the Risk of Dog Bite–related Injury." Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Vol. 237 (7), pg.788-92.
This article was mostly based on statistics about how many dog attacks there were, how many people died and how many people were hospitalized. This article also argued how many people support the banning of certain breeds, and what states also support the legislation.
Silverman, Jacob. "How Dogfighting Works." HowStuffWorks. How Stuff Works, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.

This is an article that in detail talks about dogfighting. It tells the specific breeds that individuals use, how they are trained which is actually abuse and neglect. It also argues the myths about the specific breeds of dogs. It then proceeds to how the dogfighting and abuse affect the dog itself and possible outcomes.
Williams, Leslie. "Is Breed Specific Legislation the Answer to Preventing Dog Attacks?" (2004): 1-25. Print.
This journal entry gave a lot of insight to the pros and cons of breed specific legislation. It also gave a lot of support with specific statistics, and that the breed of the dog isn’t the only factor that plays into dog attacks.