New French Law Puts Restrictions on Pit Bulls (washingtonpost.com)

PARIS, Jan. 6 – As everyone knows, the French love dogs and don't mind what they do on the sidewalk. Starting today, pit bulls are an exception to the dog-loving part.

A new law requires all pit bulls, said to be the most dangerous of dogs, to be sterilized, muzzled, registered at city halls and kept out of public places. The District of Columbia and other U.S. jurisdictions are considering or already impose various controls on pit bulls, while a number of European countries have enacted their own limitations.

In the Netherlands, for instance, breeding of pit bulls has been forbidden since 1993, and they are required to be sterilized. The country expects the breed to be extinct there in two more years. And an "aggression test" is required for five other breeds; dogs that fail must be muzzled, sterilized and kept on a short leash.

In France, pit bulls are responsible for relatively few biting deaths. But, as in some other countries, they tend to be mostly owned by alienated young people in low-income neighborhoods who raise them for fighting – a bad sign for potential enforcement of the new law.

"In ghettos where the police don't go in already, I don't see why they will go in because of this law," said Paris city councillor Jean-Michel Michaux, a veterinarian. In fact, France is a country with many laws no one obeys, and this threatens to become another one. The police have been given no special training or increased resources to enforce it. According to Gerard Boyer, head of the police union, nine bureaucrats will administer the law for all of Paris.

The law also calls for controls on other breeds deemed to be dangerous. One of them is the American Staffordshire terrier. Walking a brown-and-white one this morning, one owner knew all about the new law. "Yes, he's supposed to wear a muzzle, though it doesn't have to be on," the owner said cheerfully. There was no muzzle to be seen.

Pit bull fans said their breed had been unfairly discriminated against. And in fact, according to statistics cited in the French press, of the 15 deaths caused by dogs since 1989, nine were from German shepherds and none by dogs identified as pit bulls.

"If the poodle of my concierge bites someone, it's not classified as a dangerous dog. But if a pit bull does nothing, it's a dangerous dog," said Serge Pautot, lawyer for the association of pit bull owners.

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