The Racism Behind Breed Specific Legislation
Pit Bulls (among other breeds) have either been banned or heavily restricted in over 1,000 U.S. Communities.
How we think about race and breed inform one another. The word “race” comes from the world of dogs.
In medieval France, they classified their animals by function and nobility.
The dogs belonging to French nobility were the “highest race” and the common guard dog the “lowest race” — for hundreds of years after, writers across Europe referred to “races” rather than the breed of dog.
That definition of “race” made its way over to define humans during the Enlightenment and “breed” was attached to the dog.
For most Breed Specific Legislation, the term Pit Bull is a catch-all. While it includes the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, or Staffordshire Bull Terrier … and in almost all cases, any derivative of the breed or any breed defined as a “bully breed”.
According to The Animal Farm Foundation, “All breed-specific policies and laws can be traced to racism, classism, and ableism. Sometimes this discrimination is against the homeless, people of lesser means, sometimes it’s about ableism, denying people with disabilities access, and other times…
