Justice Department Rules Against Dog Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Justice is putting state and local governments on notice — if you've got breed specific legislation on the books, it doesn't apply to service dogs anymore. Earlier this week, the DOJ issued a new rule relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and as far as the feds are concerned, your service dog can be any breed (or mix of breeds) under the sun.

It's a good move, and hopefully the local officials in places like Denver and Sioux City are starting to get the message. Breed specific legislation is not scientifically justifiable, nor is it particularly good policy.

Of course, this isn't the end of breed specific legislation as we know it. If a locality has existing legislation banning certain breeds, it remains in force, just not for service dogs. And while this is a positive development (it's always nice to see the government agreeing with us), it's also not necessarily a case of the people in Washington making a strong symbolic statement against dog discrimination.

It's really more about consistency and ease of enforcement. The ADA is federal law, and its job is to make sure that if you're disabled, you have the same accommodations and facilities in Tucson that you do in Toledo. If one city says you can't have a pit bull, no matter what, and another says pit bulls are just fine, then suddenly consistency goes right out the window. The Department of Justice gets that, and in the interests of making sure ADA is applied consistently no matter where you live, they're laying down the law.

One interesting bright spot to note is the DOJ's implicit acknowledgment that some often-maligned breeds have a proven record of being good service animals:

[Some localities] have restrictions that, while well-meaning, have the unintended effect of screening out the very breeds of dogs that have successfully served as service animals for decades without a history of the type of unprovoked aggression or attacks that would pose a direct threat, e.g., German Shepherds.

While the DOJ singles out German Shepherds, it's worth mentioning that pit bulls, the poster species for breed specific legislation, are eminently trainable, smart animals which are fully capable of being service dogs. In fact, three Colorado people are involved in a class-action lawsuit against the state over their pit bull service dogs.

To be fair, the vast majority of dogs affected by breed specific legislation are not service animals, and for them, the DOJ has nothing to offer with this rule. But, on the bright side, this is one more credible acknowledgment that breed specific legislation is just bad policy.

Tell Denver it's time to repeal their breed ban.

Photo credit: stephpowell