“Oh Shit, a Pit Bull!” Did Breed Mythology Kill a Dog During a Police Raid?

When I get my time machine out of the shop, I’m going to go back 100 years to tell some amazing things to the dog world. I’m going to tell them that where I come from, Great Danes are gentle companions for children and are one of the most cuddly breeds a family can own. I’m also going to tell them that nanny dogs, as pit bulls were sometimes known, will become so hated and feared that they may be shot on sight. Both predictions will seem so ridiculous that I won’t be believed. A Drug Raid in Columbia, MissouriJonathan and Brittany Whitworth,...

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Darwin, Hamilton Smith and the Lost Domestications of South America

Theories of canine domestication are beginning to take into account partial domestications of wolves, such as the 33,000 year old skeleton from a Siberian cave described by Ovodov et al. (2010), and the skull from a cave in Belgium described by Germonpre et al. (2009). Ovodov et al. argue:“Since dog domestication almost certainly occurred multiple times without direct human selection, we suggest that it must have occasionally failed. That is,...

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U.S. Can Learn from Australian Debate over Success Rates of Detection Dogs

A debate now going on in Australia deserves the attention of those in the U.S. involved in using, and particularly those responsible for funding, detection dogs. While American courts sometimes consider the relevance of a dog’s accuracy rate in prosecutions, there is far less discussion on this side of the Pacific as to whether the overall success rate of drug and other detection dogs justifies their costs. There is also far too little recognition...

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Seizure of Drugs in Plain View Was Legal, but Search Following Dog’s Alert Should Have Waited for Warrant (Not That It Mattered)

Officer Michael Sweeney saw Shayna Kline make a U-turn against a red light on Martinsville Road in Bernards Township, New Jersey. Kline later disputed that she had turned on a red light, saying that she had waited for the light to turn green. Sweeney pulled the vehicle over and approached the passenger side of the vehicle. Officer Kazinsky, also on patrol, pulled up in a separate patrol car. Kline argued at trial that her car was targeted because it had out-of-state plates and that Sweeney must have already called for backup even before stopping...

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An Overly Friendly Dog Pushes Over a Guest: Is Suing Owners of Goosers a New Profit Center in Personal Injury Law?

My dog sometimes gets rambunctious and runs between the legs of guests. We can generally control this, and try to warn people to be on their guard on entering our house. Being a lawyer, I suppose I have always had in the back of my mind the question of whether I might be liable if somebody falls down and breaks a hip. A recent decision by an appellate court in New Jersey provides some perspective on this issue for those of us who have overly friendly dogs. The fact that the dog’s owner was not liable in this particular case should not lead...

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