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10 Animal L. 313 (2004)
Breed Specific Legislation: Unfair Prejudice & (and) Ineffective Policy

handle is hein.journals/anim10 and id is 321 raw text is: BREED SPECIFIC LEGISLATION:
UNFAIR PREJUDICE & INEFFECTIVE POLICY
By
Devin Burstein*
This comment examines breed specific legislation-the unfortunate attempt
of legislatures throughout the country to address the valid concern over vi-
cious dog attacks by prohibiting or strictly regulating entire breeds, most
often, pit bulls. Such legislation has succeeded in perpetuating uninformed
stereotypes and creating a false sense of security for the public. However,
breed specific legislation has failed to accomplish the goal of making society
safer because it fails to address the responsibility of dog owners for dog at-
tacks. In addition, these laws unfairly punish animal and owner alike by
ignoring the obvious facts that dogs are individuals capable of a variety of
emotions and behaviors, and that no breed is inherently good or evil. To
prevent the tragedies that can occur when a dog attacks a human, legisla-
tion must take aim at the heart of the problem, the human owners that al-
low, through negligence or intentional mistreatment and training, these
attacks to occur.
I.  INTRODUCTION    ......................................... 314
II. BREED-SPECIFIC LAWS ................................. 315
III. CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES ....................... 318
A.  Substantive Due Process  ............................... 318
B.  Equal Protection  ...................................... 319
C.  Vagueness  ............................................ 320
IV. POLICY AND REASONING ............................... 323
A .  O w ners  ............................................... 323
B.  Dogs as Individuals  ................................... 324
V. PROPOSAL AND CONCLUSION .......................... 326
VI.  APPENDIX    .............................................. 328

[313]

* © Devin Burstein, 2004. Mr. Burstein is an associate at Proskauer Rose LLP. He
graduated Cum Laude, Order of the Coif from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,
where an earlier version of this article won the Benjamin N. Cardozo Writing Award for
the Best Course/Independent Research Paper.

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