Hooray! Sanity Wins! Nevada Bans Breed Specific Legislation

It's the 14th state to pass a law preventing breed discrimination. Let's hope more follow.

Obviously, we don't like breed specific legislation, or BSL, which lets government bodies regulate, ban, seize, and even destroy dogs solely because they belong to a specific breed -- or just look like they do. And it's not just Pit Bulls who are affected -- many breed specific laws include such breeds as Bulldogs, Chow Chows, and even Dalmatians. They're breed-discriminatory laws, to use a more accurate term. And too often, cities adopt them as a knee-jerk reaction, based on little more than a few vocal proponents. 

But undoing those laws is a hard process, involving local heroes who take up the cause on behalf of their pets and refuse to back down. 

Thankfully, there are people such as Jessica Clemens, founder of Incred-A-Bull, and groups such as Best Friends Animal Society. They led the effort to outlaw BSL in Nevada. And they succeeded. 

Last week, Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Assembly Bill 110, which "prevents local governments from adopting or enforcing an ordinance or regulation that deems a dog dangerous or vicious based solely on the breed of the dog," according to a Best Friends' press release. 

Nevada is the 14th state to pass a law preventing breed discrimination.

The group worked with bill sponsor Assemblyman James Ohrenschall. 

"It has always been bad public policy to enact ordinances that target a certain breed of dog without considering that individual dog's actions," he said. "I'm proud of sponsoring this legislation because it will help keep our innocent friends from being killed needlessly and senselessly. This bill will help strengthen the bond between humans and our beloved dogs.”

Best Friends brought some popular figures into the campaign. Richard Hunter, owner of Mel, one of the “Victory” dogs rescued and brought to Best Friends from Michael Vick’s 2007 dog fighting bust, testified before the Nevada Senate to show support, according to the release.  

Good work, people. The ban on BSL takes effect Oct. 1. Let's hope more states follow Nevada's lead. For those looking to get involved, a good place to start is by creating a Change.org petition. Here's Incred-A-Bull's petition for the Nevada campaign, to give you a guide. 

Via Huffington Post; photos via Best Friends Animal Society

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Breed Surveys Tell Breeds What To Watch For

The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals offers free Breed Club Health Surveys of many dog breeds so that breed associations and breeders can be better informed about health issues of their breeds. The surveys can be completed online (although you may need the assistance of your veterinarian for a question or two) in about 20 minutes. They’re pretty thorough, too. The results are confidential and are used to identify health issues of various breeds. They also tell you as a pet owner which genetic health screens your dog should have.

To take the survey, visit http://www.offa.org/surveys/index.html. You can even read the results of some of the surveys, which are fascinating.For example, did you know:

22% of Papillons have been diagnosed with dental disorders?1 in 10 Staffordshire Bull Terriers is used in obedience trials?The most common skin disorder in Parson Russell Terriers is seasonal allergies?

Some surveys may be closed, but check back every 6 months to see if your dog’s survey is open. If you have a purebred dog, even it you obtained him/her from a shelter, you should answer the survey to help breeders and breed clubs understand the health issues oftheir favorite dogs.

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Cairn Terrier (Toto’s Breed) May Become Kansas State Dog – Does Your State Need an Official Dog?

Toto, a Cairn terrier, will forever be linked to Kansas.

Alaska has the Alaskan Malamute, Massachusetts has the Boston Terrier, and nine other states also have official dogs (including New Hampshire’s Chinook, which I thought was just a kind of salmon until I saw that the yellow sled dog is decidedly not a fish).

But 39 states don’t yet have state canines. They may have state reptiles, birds, and even insects, but no dogs. Kansas is getting set to lower that number to 38 soon, if a state bill calling for the Cairn terrier (the kind of dog Toto was) to become the official state dog passes.

“I do realize that this isn’t the most important piece of legislation or issue we’re dealing with, but I hope we can take this legislation as what it is, a symbolic piece of legislation, and move it through,” Rep. Ed Trimmer, who last week introduced House Bill No. 251, said in an ABC News story.

Cairns are a good choice for Kansas, since the state will forever be linked to the canine co-star of The Wizard of Oz. But most states don’t have clearcut ties with dogs. It’s not like they’re native mammals stomping around the woods, or local birds flitting about the flowers.

Last year Dogster wrote about New York’s attempt to make “shelter rescue dog” the official state dog. I’ve checked for updates, but I don’t see anything about that legislation happening. It was a great idea, though.

Dogsters, if your state doesn’t have a state dog, what do you think yours should be? Or is this even something you’d want to see, since it tends to promote certain breeds? Jake thinks California’s should be a yellow (aka blond) Lab, of course.

Should the yellow/blond Lab be California's state dog, as Jake seems to be hinting at?

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Breed profiling: What does it mean for your dog’s health?

While racial profiling is considered taboo, when it comes to our patients, veterinarians profile breeds like there’s no tomorrow.

Sure, knowing the breed helps us predict the behavior we will encounter when we enter the exam room, but where “breed profiling” is most helpful is as it pertains to predicting disease. Show me a senior Saint Bernard and I’ll show you a dog with arthritis. Show me an English Bulldog with normal upper airway anatomy and dinner’s on me!

Such breed-specific knowledge is gleaned from years of practicing veterinary medicine but, more and more, these impressions are becoming evidence-based. The March/April Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine featured an article titled “Mortality in North American Dogs from 1984 to 2004: An Investigation into Age- Size- and Breed-Related Causes of Death.” The data was collected from information provided by veterinary teaching hospitals and recorded in the national Veterinary Medical Database. The cause of death for more than 70,000 dogs and 82 breeds was scrutinized. The categorization went as follows:

which organ system failed (cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological, etc.)pathophysiologic process (trauma, infectious disease, cancer, etc.).

For example, if one were to look at all of the Boston Terriers in the study, 22 percent died with neurological symptoms and cancer was the cause of death in 30 percent.

Here are some other tidbits from this study:

Forty percent of Dachshunds die from traumatic neurological disease   (intervertebral disk disease).

That represents a staggering percentage. To have a Doxie is to expect disk disease, but this is generally considered a treatable condition. My assumption is that financial hardship (treatment often requires expensive diagnostics and surgery) and the decision to euthanize are the sad truths behind this high percentage.

The breeds with the highest proportion of deaths caused by heart disease included Newfoundland, Maltese, Chihuahua, Doberman Pinscher, and Fox Terrier.The top five breeds that died as a result of musculoskeletal diseases included Saint Bernard, Great Pyrenees, Irish Wolfhound, Great Dane, and Greyhound.

This makes sense. When such large dogs have a tough time getting around because of sore bones, joints, or muscles, they become management nightmares and hasten the decision to euthanize.

Cancer was the leading cause of death across all breeds within the study population.

Interestingly, the relative frequency of cancer peaked in the age group that included ten-year-old dogs, then declined within the oldest age group. Is the incidence of cancer increasing, or are we getting better at detecting cancer? Or perhaps both?  The answer is not clear, however we feel certain that cancer is commonly inherited within certain breeds (Bernese Mountain Dog, Golden Retriever, Boxer, Bouvier des Flandres) in which approximately half of the population will succumb to the “big C.”

Cancer occurred less commonly in smaller breeds of dogs (Boston Terriers being an exception).Larger breeds more commonly died due to diseases affecting the musculoskeletal or gastrointestinal systems.Traumatic causes of death were equally prevalent among larger and smaller breeds.

So, beyond the simple curiosity factor, how does all of this data help us?

Perhaps it will influence one’s decision-making when adopting a new dog. My current canine family members are both small mutts. Yes, I have to bend over more, but I’d grown weary of getting burned by the heartache that accompanies the diagnosis of cancer.

On a more global scale, this data is key to directing new and ongoing breed-specific research such as looking for ways to prevent musculoskeletal abnormalities in large breed dogs and tracking down the genetic basis for cancer in particular breeds.

Additionally, the information presented in this article serves as justification for veterinarians to recommend more comprehensive early disease-specific screening tests based on breed.

Last, if you share your home and your heart with a Dachshund, this data should entice you to invest some of your hard-earned money in a good pet health insurance policy (one that does not exclude coverage for disk disease in Dachshunds) or a large doggie-piggy bank reserved for medical matters. This way, when your little Doxie “slips a disk” you’ll be able to treat this treatable disease.

Curious about what this article had to say about your dog’s breed? Feel free to ask and we’ll let you know if it was included in the study.

Photo credit: Dunja Oertel

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