Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 21:27:37 -0800
To: Crisco@senatedems.ct.gov
From: Merritt Clifton <anmlpepl@whidbey.com>
Subject: Oppose SB 436

Dear Senator Crisco:

I am the editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE: News For People Who Care About Animals. Our audience includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000 humane societies and animal control agencies worldwide. I have been covering animal protection and keeping relevant data logs for various news media since 1978. This has been my fulltime beat since 1986.

Legislation such as Connecticut SB 436, which would prevent insurance companies from restricting liability coverage of dog breeds in accurate reflection of actuarial risk, is anti-dog, anti-child, anti-social, and ultimately downright inhumane and irresponsible.

SB 436 contradicts the very concept of assessing premiums in response to risk. In effect it would compel every homeowner and renter to subsidize the tiny minority of persons who keep and breed pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, and their close mixes.

Exclusive of incidents involving fighting dogs and working guard dogs, pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, and their close mixes have accounted for more than 75% of all the life-threatening and fatal dog attacks in the U.S. and Canada in each of the past 23 consecutive years (possibly longer, but the available data starts with 1982.)

If insurers cannot assign premiums in reflection of the extraordinary actuarial risk associated with pit bull terriers and Rottweilers, they will respond as many insurance groups already have, by simply refusing to issue homeowners policies to anyone with any kind of large dog.

This makes all large dogs at animal shelters virtually unadoptable, and means that already tens of thousands of Labradors, Newfoundlands, St. Bernards, golden retrievers, and other large dogs are dying in shelters because of the risk factors associated exclusively with other breeds.

Accompanying as the next three e-mails are three items of relevant background.

The first item is the ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial position statement on legislation such as SB 436, further reviewing the relevant insurance and risk issues.

The second item is the ANIMAL PEOPLE log of life-threatening and fatal dog attacks in the U.S. and Canada, from September 1982 to the present date. This log includes only attacks by pets. Fighting dogs and guard dogs are excluded. In mid-February I logged the 1000th attack on a child to qualify for the list. The victim was the 890th victim of a pit bull terrier, the 419th child victim, and the 82nd fatality. Rottweilers are a distant second in each category, with about half the pit bull totals. All other breeds combined are responsible for fewer.

The third item is the annual ANIMAL PEOPLE survey of dog and cat killing in animal shelters. Last year the numbers increased, for the first time in 34 years. This coincided with a five-fold increase in shelter receipts of pit bull terriers and Rottweilers over the preceding 10 years.

Overbreeding most dogs, for example Dalmatians and Chihuahuas, is self-corrected by market factors. When all the homes are filled, the price drops, so the breeders stop turning them out.

Overbreeding pit bull terriers and Rottweilers is not corrected by market factors, because the dogfighting market exists to profitably dispose of any who flunk out of homes or never find homes, but do not find their way to shelters.

The secondary market in fighting dogs and bait dogs for training fighting dogs has kept overbreeding pit bulls lucrative. The existence of the secondary market makes breeding pit bulls much more like breeding pigs and chickens than like breeding animals who are not considered short-cycle disposable commodities: as the price drops, the market expands instead of the supply contracting.

The best way to stop dogfighting, as well as to reduce human injuries and fatalities, is to cut off the supply of potential bait dogs and fighting dogs through breed-specific responses, including allowing insurance companies to refuse to insure the premises where pit bull terriers and Rottweilers are housed and bred.

Incidentally, it is a colossal Big Lie that any other dog could substitute for pit bulls and Rottweilers in the ring. Worldwide, only one dog breed commonly used to fight is not a close variant of pit bull or Rottweiler. That one, the Japanese tosa, is not big enough or strong enough to compete with pit bulls and Rottweilers. All of the other common fighting breeds, such as the Dogo Argentino, Presa Canario, and Fila Basiero, are bred primarily from pit bull terrier ancestors.

It is also a colossal Big Lie that pit bull terriers were ever America's favorite breed, as pit bull breeders often claim. Collies and Border collies were actually the most popular breeds during the era usually cited, before 1925. During that era, from 1905 to 1925, most of the U.S. outlawed dogfighting. Then as now, humane societies were inundated with abandoned pit bull terriers, and made huge efforts to try to popularize them, so that some could be adopted, but the efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

Appreciating your attention,

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

Telephone: 360-579-2505
Fax: 360-579-2575
E-mail: anmlpepl@whidbey.com
Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year; for free sample, send address.]