The Canine Legislation department is very concerned about the dramatic rise in breed-specific legislation that we are seeing at both the state and local level. To assist dog owners in fighting breed-specific legislation, AKC has prepared and updated a number of important materials that are available to our Legislative Liaisons, club members, fanciers and concerned dog owners.

One of our most helpful items is our Dangerous Dog Information Packet. Recognizing that it is important to provide elected officials with sound legislative solutions to animal control issues, the packet contains the AKC’s position statement on dangerous dogs as well as position statements from other organizations who oppose breed-specific legislation such as the American Veterinary Medical Association and the National Animal Control Association. The packet also contains model ordinances from local and state dangerous dog laws, including New York City, Gwinnett County, GA and Washington State.

The Canine Legislation Department has recently updated the information packet to include a list of the components of a dangerous dog law as well as issue-specific talking points to help fanciers articulate their thoughts when writing letters or making a presentation to the local city council. These are available electronically and can be reproduced, as long as credit is given to AKC, and distributed to others who are assisting in fighting a proposal.

The Canine Legislation Department is pleased to make our information packet available to concerned dog owners and legislators upon request. To order these materials, please provide your mailing address to the Canine Legislation department at doglaw@akc.org or by calling the Order Desk at 919-233-9767. Please reference part number GLGKA1 when ordering. Also note that some materials are available electronically, which is particularly valuable if you do not have a lot of notice of a meeting or vote. Additionally, the Canine Legislation department hopes to have all of these materials available on CD in the near future.

As a reminder, if there is a breed-specific proposal in your area, please contact the Canine Legislation department at doglaw@akc.org so we can provide you with materials and help put you in contact with other dog owners in the area. The sooner we get the word out, the better the chance we have of convincing legislators to pass a generic dangerous dog law instead of an ordinance or law that unfairly targets specific breeds.