Breed Specific Legislation: Why It Is Ineffective Breed-specific legislation is the overall term for laws or ordinances that are set in place to ban or place harsh restrictions on owners of a particular breed of dog or dogs with certain physical characteristics. Approximately 4.5 million dog bites happen each year in the United States and an average of 30 of those attacks are fatal (Dog Bite Statistics 1). With such an alarming amount of incidences many public authorities turn to breed-specific legislation when confronted with the issue of dog attacks, bites or dogs disrupting the community. Debate continues over whether breed-specific legislation proves to be effective or not in reducing the amount of dog-related injuries though. Around the
