Is your breed banned?

As amazing as it seems, or perhaps simply because it does not surprise me at all, here is a list of breeds that you now cannot own, or get insurance if you own, or if you own your freedoms are severely limited:

"The information here comes from the Responsible Dog Owners Of The Western States (RDOWS) , which has just updated the list of breeds that have been banned or restricted in the U.S." (Side bar, since a lot of you won't bother to visit the link, I'm going to paste the meat of why this is happening into this post. You think it can't happen to you because you own a chiuhuahua or some overpriced mutt...you are wrong.)

Here's what is happening:
Breed bans - an outright ban on owning a specific breed of dog
Breed-specific sterilization - owners are forced to spay or neuter animal
Breed-specific measures that include mandatory registration in a database similar to a sex offender database, forced microchipping, forced containment or signage
Breed-specific insurance requirements - forces owners to obtain the unobtainable "vicious" breed insurance - in reality this forces owners to surrender dogs or move
Weight or size restrictions - banning dogs over an arbitrarily determined weight or size - as in Fairfield, Iowa where all dogs over 100 lbs are banned (St. Bernard, Irish Wolfhound, Great Dane, etc.)
BTW - your insurance company is happily waiting in the background too - waiting to exclude coverage of your dog, waiting to drop your policy, or waiting to outrageously raise your rates.

And because I know you are anxious here's the list of breeds so DANGEROUS so UNCONTROLLABLE, so completely ROTTEN to the core they must be banned...*drum roll*
1. AIREDALE TERRIER
2. AKBASH
3. AKITA
4. ALAPAHA BLUE BLOOD BULLDOG
5. ALASKAN MALAMUTE
6. ALSATIAN SHEPHERD
7. AMERICAN BULLDOG
8. AMERICAN HUSKY
9. AMERICAN PIT BULL TERRIER
10. AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER
11. AMERICAN WOLFDOG
12. ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD
13. ARIKARA DOG
14. AUSTRALIAN CATTLE DOG
15. AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD
16. BELGIAN MALINOIS
17. BELGIAN SHEEPDOG
18. BELGIAN TURVUREN
19. BLUE HEELER
20. BOERBUL
21. BORZOI
22. BOSTON TERRIER
23. BOUVIER DES FLANDRES
24. BOXER
25. BULLDOG
26. BULL TERRIER
27. BULL MASTIFF
28. CANE CORSO
29. CATAHOULA LEOPARD DOG
30. CAUCASIAN SHEPHERD
31. CHINESE SHAR PEI 3
32. CHOW-CHOW
33. COLORADO DOG
34. DOBERMAN PINSCHER
35. DOGO DE ARGENTINO
36. DOGUE DE BORDEAUX
37. ENGLISH MASTIFFS
38. ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL
39. ESKIMO DOG
40. ESTRELA MOUNTAIN DOG
41. FILA BRASILIERO
42. FOX TERRIER
43. FRENCH BULLDOG
44. GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG
45. GOLDEN RETRIEVER
46. GREENLAND HUSKY
47. GREAT DANE
48. GREAT PYRANEES
49. ITALIAN MASTIFF
50. KANGAL DOG
51. KEESHOND
52. KOMONDOR
53. KOTEZEBUE HUSKY
54. KUVAZ
55. LABRADOR RETRIEVER
56. LEONBERGER
57. MASTIFF
58. NEOPOLITAN MASTIFF
59. NEWFOUNDLAND
60. OTTERHOUND
61. PRESA DE CANARIO
62. PRESA DE MALLORQUIN
63. PUG
64. ROTTWEILER
65. SAARLOOS WOLFHOND
66. SAINT BERNARD
67. SAMOYED
68. SCOTTISH DEERHOUND
69. SIBERIAN HUSKY
70. SPANISH MASTIFF
71. STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER
72. TIMBER SHEPHERD
73. TOSA INU
74. TUNDRA SHEPHERD
75. WOLF SPITZ

Did you notice that you don't recognize over half the breeds on this list? Yeah because there are like 5 of them in the whole country! Did you notice that the pug, the Frenchie and everyone's favorite the Labrador Retriever made it to the list? Yeah...because it's not just pit bulls and Rotties anymore. There is a quote that I've always thought goes well with this situation although it orginally was not about dogs but I'm going to close with it anyway...but before I do. Let this be a lesson to you. The politicians that ban breeds are overwhelmingly Liberal Democrats. (You can look that up.) Yes there are Republicans too but the percentage of Repubs doing this is very small. Liberals like to say they are open minded and don't want to tell anyone what they can and cannot do, but then they go and do something like this. Be mindful of who you vote for people. If there is a dog curled up at your feet while you read this, remember that the sum total of politics in this country is NOT the Iraq war, healthcare and abortion on demand. There are other issues. Make sure you know where your guy stands before you vote.

"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." -- Martin Niemoller