The Real Impact of Dog Breed Restrictions and How We Can End Them

BSL is a violation of individuals’ constitutional rights and we are proving that in court with our Breed Specific Legislation Legal Action Fund.

Since we began tracking instances of BSL across the United States, half of all existing or proposed instances have been repealed or rejected.

Discussing the human bias behind these restrictions is how we will end them. We all need to challenge ourselves to overcome our own biases. We’ve challenged those within animal welfare to do just that.

Over a decade ago, we began to address the issues of how subjective and unscientific breed labels affect people’s perceptions of shelter dogs – both in and outside of the shelter system. These labels led to adoption restrictions perpetuated by savior complexes rooted in classism, racism, ableism, and even ageism. We began using our platform to challenge people to deconstruct the bias behind their personal reasons for putting those restrictions in place.

The more we spoke and worked with dog owners affected by breed restrictions, we knew that it was our responsibility to do more. We started having more public conversations about the other ways, outside of sheltering, that society uses dogs as tools of discrimination.

For instance, people are now more openly discussing the fact that breed restrictions in the housing insurance industry are nothing more than a stand-in for redlining. There is no data that justifies targeting dog owners who have never had a dog bite claim. The lack of valid data is why lawmakers in several states have banned these restrictions because they directly contribute to housing inequality.