Selma` s take on the BSL

I have borrowed a post from Caveat. Selma has been in the main arena , fighting the BSL legislation since before its inception and I follow her blog religiously .
When I learn how to post links, I`ll put it up on here for you to read for yourself.

Caveat said...
There is no pre-screening process so that owners have a clue that they may own Ontario 'pit bulls'. The only way they find out is when some cowboy of an AC officer who thinks he really knows his stuff points and says "that's a 'pit bull' who is too young, isn't wearing a muzzle, isn't neutered, blah blah blah".

There is no appeal of this arbitrary, subjective (and if you know dogs, usually hilarious in a gallows-humour kind of way) decision outside of the courtroom. There is nothing in the law about behaviour, it's all about looks. Not breed, mind you, looks.

In some cities, for example, AC officers hunting 'pit bulls' have targeted (both purebred and mixed) Viszlas, Chesapeake Bay retrievers, Labrador retrievers, Boxers, Boston terriers, Bullmastiffs, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, French Bulldogs - there's more, but you get the picture.

Incidentally, nobody is obligated to identify a dog as a 'pit bull' or to enforce these regulations. Cities such as Ottawa have refused to try to enforce it and there are others. The only reason to ID a dog as a 'pit bull' under the law is because they want to kill the dog. There were already enough [unenforced] laws around to protect people from dangerous dogs but that's not what this is about.

There are fewer than 50 registered American Staff terriers in Ontario. There are about 300 each of Staff Bull and American Pit Bull terriers.

To get an idea of how rare they are here, there are roughly 3.5 million dogs in the province.

Once the magic words, 'pit bull', have been uttered by some flunky with no credentials, experience or training, the dog owner is presumed guilty. Wam bam, got ten grand? They must prove their dog is something that the govt can't define and that doesn't actually exist. There's no such thing as a 'pit bull' and while the law says 'substantially similar in physical characteristics' to the 3 (very different) banned breeds, it doesn't say how you prove your dog is not SS( substantially similar) to those breeds. It even advocates using breed standards to identify mongrels, when they aren't used to identify purebreds.

This garbage is a classic example of when people should know what they don't know. It's too bad only smart people understand that concept.