By: Paxton Rizzo
DNA testing has seen a rise in popularity after becoming more available to the general public. Not surprisingly, the popularity for DNA testing of man’s best friend was quick to follow. The technology that allows us to understand where we come from, now also allows us to understand where our dogs come from. Knowing what breeds make up our dogs may not just be some fun gift idea but may prove helpful in moving some dogs that have been falsely labeled as “Pit Type” out from under breed targeted legislation.
Canine DNA testing is done using the same process as human DNA testing. A cheek swab is taken from the dog and mailed to whatever company is providing the testing.[1] Company choice is especially important for accuracy when testing dogs. Owners should look for a company with a bigger database if they want the test to be as accurate as possible.[2] The bigger the database, the more DNA repeating sequences it has to in or to and compare them to sequences from dogs known to belong to a specific breed.[3] These repeating DNA sequences are known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs; different breeds have different signature SNPs.[4] Larger databases have more SNPs aggregated and matched to specific breeds, thus resulting in more accurate tests.[5]
Many mixed breed dog’s appearances do not portray what their genetics are. In the legal field, this has proven detrimental to some mixed breed dogs. Currently, Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) targets one dog type in particular that almost every American has heard of, the Pit Bull.[6] In legislation the term “Pit Bull” is often broken down to mean Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terriers, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers.[7] Defining what breeds they mean is necessary because the American Kennel Club (AKC), the largest dog breed registry in the country, does not recognize the “Pit Bull” as a breed. To put it all together at this point, the “breed” Pit Bull has no breed standard that breeders would breed their dogs to meet because it is not a real breed. Thus, there is no standard repeating code or SNPs that could determine a dog as a “Pit Bull”.
The lack of a breed standard creates the confusion that causes misidentification of mixbreed dogs.[8] BSL bans the breeds of dogs that traditionally make up the baseline DNA of what the public would call “Pit Bulls”.[9] Those breeds are AKC recognized, thus DNA testing can reveal whether a particular dog has those breeds in its make up, but to be certain, DNA testing would be necessary.[10] There are many breeds of dogs that legislation does not target that when mixed with other breeds resembles what some would call a “Pit Bull”.[11] Veterinarians and Shelter workers, with and without breed identification training, have mixed success rates when attempting to identify breed based on phenotype.[12] Many iterations of BSL relies on individuals who have no breed identification training to try and distinguish what is and is not a “Pit Bull,” a type of dog we have already established has no standard of what it will look like.[13] This has led to many dogs being seized that were not among the breeds defined as “Pit Bulls,” such as Niko, a boxer mix in Kansas City.[14] DNA testing was able to prove that this boxer mix seized by animal control in Kansas City was not a Pit Bull.[15] That ordeal that lasted 8 months prompted a near by town in Kansas to repeal its breed specific legislation,[16] possibly realizing it was unenforceable on appearance alone.
Virginia is not a state that has any breed specific legislation, but there are apartment complexes and other living situations that do not allow owners to have a “Pit Bull.” The Richmond SPCA was curious to see if breed identification available through DNA testing would increase the adoption of dogs that resembled what would be considered a Pit Type dog.[17] What they found was that the breed identification in this legal environment did not make perspective owners any more or less likely to adopt a dog and what most owners really cared about was temperament.[18]
Canine DNA testing is revealing that dogs that look like a “Pit Bull” may not have any Pit Type dog in them; they may just be a Great Dane mixed with Chow Chow.[19] Alternatively, they may have 50% American Bull Dog in them, a breed that some legislation considers a pit type dog, but the other 50% of that same dog may be Lassie.[20] The ability to test their dog may provide with modern DNA technology may provide owners with the ability to protect their dog from breed specific legislation or know if the breed specific legislation applies to them. The more DNA testing that is done on dogs the more we will see that any dog can be a “Pit Bull,” and every dog is a “Pit Bull”, which could make legislation that has been challenged on fairness impossible to enforce.
[1] Kathryn Socie-Dunning, Dog DNA Tests: Mixed Results, Whole Dog Journal (July 2018), https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/21_7/features/Dog-DNA-Tests-Mixed-Results_21872-1.html.
[2] See id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] See Kate Horowitz, DNA Tests Show Many Shelter Dogs Are Mislabeled as Pit Bulls, Mental Floss (Feb. 20, 2016), http://mentalfloss.com/article/75759/dna-tests-show-many-shelter-dogs-are-mislabeled-pit-bulls.
[7] See Dana M. Campbell, Pit Bull Bans: The State of Breed-Specific Legislation, GPSolo, July/Aug. 2009, at 38.
[8] See Id. See also Horowitz, supra note 7.
[9] Campbell, supra note 8, at 38.
[10] See Horowitz, supra note 7. See also Emily Weiss, Bully This – The Results Are In…, ASPCApro, (Sept. 26, 2013), https://www.aspcapro.org/blog/2013/09/25/bully-—-results-are-….
[11] See Weiss, supra note 11.
[12] See id. See also Horowitz, supra note 7.
[13] Campbell, supra note 8, at 39.
[14] Id. at 38.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
[17] See Weiss, supra note 11.
[18] Id.
[19] Id.
[20] Id.