Does that look like a dangerous dog to you? Authorities in New South Wales, Australia think so - just adding the Maltese to the dangerous dog list. I'm thrilled because this illustrates perfectly just how idiotic these dangerous dog lists are. Of course, Pit Bulls top the list of breeds banned from communities in the U.S. with Rottweilers likely a distant second. But the Maltese? Well, my guess is that there were so many bites simply because the Maltese is increasingly popular Down Under. So for starters, it's math - there are just a lot of them. I concede poor breeding may play a role, and people who figure it's a small dog, and therefore they don't need to take the dog to training classes or to socialize.
Municipal governments in the U.S. are beginning to 'get it,' breed bans don't do anything to lessen bite numbers. Highland Park just rejected a breed ban, for example. Now, the latest bans come from insurance companies seeking to profit by randomly charging more or not allowing certain breeds on policies all together. I wrote two columns on the topic. Column 1: Politicians Looking to Ban Insurance Company Breed Discrimination.
Column 2: Dawn Howard in Bolingbrook is paying more because of her breed of choice, Chihuahuas (it's true!)
Meanwhile, BEWARE of the vicious Maltese!
Gooooooooooooooooood Grief! Don't these people have anything better to do?