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Notes -
On #2: I doubt illegal dog-owners will ever be prosecuted, unless it's in tandem with another offense. In my city, code enforcement is responsive - not proactive. I would expect minimal enforcement until a violent offense happens, and then two charges to be brought up instead of one. Which feels like a piling-on of trumped up charges to create Death By Multiple Cuts.
It doesn't seem like a good process, this. I don't work in the legal system, but I wish there were a better way of doing things.
I think it would have some effect if the consequences of owning an illegal dog were the same as owning an illegal firearm. I believe, in most jurisdictions, having an illegal firearm is either a felony or the "worst" misdemeanor. And yes, if piled on other charges, it gets serious in a hurry.
"Are you serious? Illegal dog the same as an illegal gun? Get out of town, man..." The haters will say.
But let me ask this; besides a gun, what "thing" can you own that can do the same level of damage / death that an off leash (large) dog could do? Perhaps a car (which we have lots of licensing and registration regimes around). Knives and power tools are a little more shaky, but not a totally bad argument. The key, however, becomes that dogs, unlikely any of the things just listed, have (literally) a mind of their own. If I lock my power tools inside my car and lock that in my garage and throw away the keys, the probability of maiming or killing others is effectively 0.
If I do that with my dog, ironically enough, that's called animal abuse.
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