Update Mar. 4: The Florida Senate Community Affairs Committee has voted 9-2 today to repeal the state's prohibition on breed discriminatory laws outside of Miami Dade County.

The bill, S.B. 1276, as amended by the Committee, would prohibit bans on owning particular breeds but would open the door to other regulation based on breed. 

Currently, Florida law bans breed discrimination throughout the state except basically in Miami Dade County where there is a long standing ban on pit bull type dogs. Fl. Stat. Sec. 767.14.

If this bill becomes law, local governments could require owners of particular breeds to obtain costly liability coverage and impose onerous requirements for confinement, handling and even walking dogs based on breed.  

The bill now moves to the Senate Agriculture Committee. Find committee members here (just click on their names for contact info - faxes and calls are best!) Urge them to say no to S.B. 1276.

Call on your Florida state senators to oppose S.B. 1276! (Put in your zipcode in the form to the left of the page to find your senator.)

Use talking points from this article below or contact Animal Law Coalition for help! 

Original report: Florida State Rep. Perry E. Thurston, Jr. has filed House Bill 543, to repeal the state's prohibition on breed specific legislation.  An identical Senate version, S.B. 1276, has also been filed by Florida State Sen. Tony Hill, Jr.

Read about successful challenges to Miami Dade County Animal Services confiscations of dogs said to be "pit bulls".

Also, for more information, read Miami Dade County: Two decades of BSL has produced no positive results.

Under H.B. 543/ S.B. 1276 local governments would be allowed to enact breed specific laws.

A similar effort has been unsuccessful in the last 2 legislative sessions.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

H.B. 543 has been assigned to the Agriculture & Natural Resources Policy  Committee. Find committee members and their contact information here and write (faxes or letters are best) or call and urge members to vote no on H.B. 543. If one of the members is your representative, be sure to let him or her know that! Above all, be polite.

Also, let Florida state representatives know that you oppose H.B. 543. To find your Florida state representative, go here and click on Find Your Representative. Let the representative know that you live in his or her district. Please be polite.

Find Senate Agriculture Committee members here (just click on their names for contact info - faxes and calls are best!) Urge them to say no to S.B. 1276.

Call on your Florida state senators to oppose S.B. 1276! (Put in your zipcode in the form to the left of the page to find your senator.)

Use talking points from this article or links or contact Animal Law Coalition for help! 

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT BSL

There is not one major animal or health organization including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control, among many others, that supports breed discrimination.

Breed specific legislation does not work to make communities safe. Study after study has proven this. Dogs don't bite because of breed or appearance; they bite out of fear that could have been the result of poor socialization, neglect, abuse, tethering or confinement or isolation.  In other words, it is the owner's negligent or criminal actions that are responsible, not the dog's breed or appearance.

BSL penalizes responsible dog owners and means the death of dogs that are not in any way dangerous.

It is also well-established that people cannot look at a dog and determine its breed. Recently, in Denver Dr. Victoria Voith did a little test on animal shelter directors, dog trainers and others who work with dogs. 

They were asked to view 20 dogs on a videotape and identify each one by breed including whether the dog was a purebred or a mix. The professionals were surprised by how few dogs they identified correctly by breed. Voith believes as many as 75% of the pit bull identifications made by shelter workers, animal control or law enforcement are wrong. She is the author of Shelter Medicine: A Comparison of Visual and DNA Identifications of BREEDS of Dogs.  As DNA testing becomes more reliable, it is proving that many of the dogs identified as pit bull are actually a mix of dozens of breeds with little or none of the DNA of pit bull type dogs. 

That means a lot of dogs condemned by BSL are not even "pit bull" breeds.   

BSL is a very costly negative for a state and will create a climate where dogs are viewed as enemies rather than family members requiring proper care, management and love.  Go here for ways to improve relations in the community with dogs and also how to address the reasons dogs bite and keep communities safe.