If dogs had a concept of new years, the start of 2015 would be one for Utah pups to remember. On Jan. 1, a new law ended specific dog breed bans across Utah. Pit bulls are once again welcome in 10 municipalities where there had been bans, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
And Washington state is also preparing a bill this year that would prevent breed-based regulations, Elizabeth Arps of the National Canine Research Council told The Dodo.
Utah was the latest state to respond to a backlash against the inefficiencies of breed-specific laws. It joins 14 other states, according to the group Stop BSL, that have bans against such legislation. Groups as diverse as the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Bar Association, the Centers for Disease Control and the Obama administration oppose laws that target specific breeds.
"We don't support breed-specific legislation," wrote the White House in a 2013 statement. "Research shows that bans on certain types of dogs are largely ineffective and often a waste of public resources."
Most bans rely on physical characteristics to depict a "pit bull type dog," and even animal shelter works may disagree on what traits make a pit bull.
Luckily, the tide is turning against pit bull bans, with more than 100 communities overturning breed-specific laws in the past two years. (In the same time frame, only 21 municipalities enacted bans.) And recently proposed laws, like a ban on pit bulls and Rottweilers that was poised to go into effect in December in Moreauville, La., have crumbled in the face of public outcry.
It's still early in the calendar year — both in real life and the legislative sphere — to say how the rest of 2015 will play out, but Arps is optimistic.
"There isn't much concrete to say about 2015 yet, but with the trends we have seen in both municipal and statewide legislation," she said, "we believe it will be a great year for dog owners, dogs and their communities."
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