Minnesota BSL??

Representative Lesch out of St. Paul Minnesota has decided to start talking about drafting a bill to ban 5 breeds of dog in Minnesota during the next legislative season. Rep.Lesch has been doing a lot of media trying to drum up support. More likely the truth is that he is simply bringing up talk of a ban to get some publicty for himself. Hopefuly the other Legislators in the State are a tad more on the ball than Rep. Lesch and will actually do some real research before spouting off to the press.

Had the Representative done any research, even the most basic research he would have learned that in the past 45 years there has been only 3 fatal attacks in the State and NONE involved any of the 5 breeds he wants to ban. He would have seen contrary to his quote about Golden Retrievers that their have been many serious attacks by Golden Retrievers, Labradors, and any other commonly referred to "family pet". Why might you ask? Well because its an owner problem and not a "breed" problem.

The Representative quotes and uses the CDC report on fatal attacks to support his cause. Had the representative actaully read the report and not just looked at the pictures, he would have seen the CDC is not an accurate and makes references thru the report:

• One of the methods for data collection is media reports.


• Without consideration of the population sizes, Breed Y would be perceived to be the more dangerous breed on the basis of the number of fatalities. (CDC Special Report on breeds involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998, September 2000). NOTE: The CDC study does NOT use population as a factor.


• When multiple dogs of the same breed were involved in the same fatal episode, that breed was counted only once (eg, if 10 Akitas attacked and killed a person, that breed was counted once rather than 10 times). When crossbred dogs were involved in a fatality, each suspected breed in the dog’s lineage was counted once for that episode.


• When you look at the 2 charts on attacks you will see under the "pure bred" chart the top entry is "pit bull type" dog. First, how can a purebred be labled as "type"? Second, pit bull is not a breed but a term used to typically group 3 specific breeds of dog.


• To learn more about the problems with this report visit my websites CDC page.

There is a reason all of the major canine organizations stand against BSL and support responsible non breed specific legislation. Rep. Lesch should have consulted the experts like the ASPCA, American Veterinary Medical Association who have done studies and task forces on this topic. He should have researched good solid non breed specific laws that would help to make citizens safe. But instead he decided he would rather mention "breed ban" so he can get his name in the press. That is not the kind of Legislators we need in the US.