Recently pit bulls have been back in the news - a child in Florida was killed by two pit bulls that had been kept chained in the owner’s yard. Now, people in the area want to ban pit bulls. I haven’t heard anyone in the news suggest banning the practice of keeping dogs chained in your yard all the time as inhumane and likely to lead to territoriality and viciousness. It must be a problem with the dogs, right? Lets get rid of them and that will solve it. A man in South Carolina was recently given 30 years in prison for a variety of charges related to breeding dogs for dog fights. There aren’t many things in the world that make me sadder or angrier. Every week I see wonderful dogs at the shelter - many of them pit bulls. They are almost all wonderful, sweet, loving dogs, especially toward people. I’ve lost two of them, who had to be euthanized because they had become too aggressive toward other animals and would be a liability to adopt out. It breaks my heart every time.

(And by the way: Pit bull is not even a recognized breed—it encompasses several different types of dogs: Staffordshire Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Bull Terriers, and others.)