Earlier this week, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein (one of 16 German States) repealed its ban on "Pit Bulls". According to the article (which is in German - this is the translation of the first two lines of the third paragraph that was sent to me from someone who lives there):
'CDU and FDP want to protect citizens against irresponsible dog holders. The race list (i.e breed ban) has turned out as not suitable for this and, hence, is abolished in the dangerous dogs law.'
It's been interesting trying to read about the "rasseliste" in Germany, and about how many of the same problems that exist with it in the US are the same in Germany - -including www.tagesanzeiger.ch%2Fleben%2Fgesellschaft%2FBeschlagnahmte-Hunde-Wer-kommt-fuer-sie-auf%2Fstory%2F30778494">the cost of the impounding and keeping the animals, and www.volksstimme.de%2Fvsm%2Fnachrichten%2Flokalausgaben%2Fmagdeburg%2Fmagdeburg%2F%3Fem_cnt%3D1507769">problems with accurate breed identification to determine which dogs are included in the breed ban, and which ones are not.
(Sorry for the rough translations -- I used Google Translate for the artiles and they come by very rough -- the original links are here and here if you are fluent in German or know of a better translator).
While our friends in Western Europe followed us into the world of breed bans, it appears they are being quicker than us to jump off the bandwagon in search of more effective solutions to their dog bite problems. Schleswig-Holstein now joins other areas of Western Europe like Italy and The Netherlands to have repealed their breed bans just in the past 2 years.
BSL is not just a failure in the US -- it is truly an internationally failed policy. Time to learn from our mistakes, and move on.
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