Dear Julie (Lewin, president of ACCT the organization trying to prevent insurance companies from making breed distinctions):

You could not possibly take a more anti-dog position than to oppose breed-specific actuarial risk assessment.

If insurance companies cannot discriminate specifically against the two breeds and their close mixes who together have
accounted for more than 75% of all dog attack fatalities and maimings in each individual year since 1982, the insurers will respond as
many already have, by refusing to insure ANY large dog.

The consequences of this policy are already clear: tens of thousands of otherwise adoptable safe large dogs are dying because of the off-the-chart risk factor associated specifically with pit bulls and Rottweilers.

Your position does nothing to benefit any breed of dog--not the other breeds who are dying, and not the pit bulls and Rottweilers either, who are being bred to die at an average age of 18 months, either in fighting rings or in pounds, where they have a 93% death rate because most cannot be safely placed foradoption.

I have already written to every Connecticut legislator on your list, urging that your bills be defeated, sending to each of them relevant documentation of the reasons why.

I have difficulty believing that you of all people are pushing such a completely stupid and irresponsible piece of legislation, which would in effect compel everyone with a liability insurance policy to subsidize pit bull and Rottweiler breeders.

Regards,

Merritt Clifton
Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE
P.O. Box 960
Clinton, WA 98236

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