One Maryland County Is No Longer Banning Pit Bulls

If you’re a dog lover living in Prince George’s County, Maryland, you have historically been able to own virtually any variety of dog you wanted — with one big exception. As Paul Ruffins noted in an article for Streetcar Suburbs in 2022, this ban has been in place for decades, and has been controversial for almost as long. In 2019, the county council declined a measure that would have undone the ban.

Six years later, however, the county has decided otherwise. Writing at The Baltimore Banner, Clara Longo de Freitas reports that the county coucil approved CB-097, a bill known as the Animal Control Modernization Act, which would pave the way for residents to own pit bulls. Some regulations will remain, however, including requiring dogs to have microchips implanted and placing a 10-foot limit on leashes.

The organization Prince George’s County Pet Unity Project, which had advocated for doing away with the ban, applauded the council’s measure in a post on Instagram. “CB-097 strengthens leash laws, increases accountability for dangerous dogs, updates outdated definitions, improves public safety, and launches a pilot foster/adoption program for the dogs who were once banned,” the organization wrote. “It is a modern, compassionate, community-centered path forward.”

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Pet Unity Project’s executive director Caitrin Conroy explained to The Washington Post that the new law would shift the focus on irresponsible owners rather than an entire class of dogs. “Now animal control can get involved in that situation instead of you having to complain constantly and go through a commission and have some hearings and have this be a month-long process,” Conroy said.

The Post‘s reporting also cites an alarming figures — that around half of the dogs in Prince George’s County shelters are pit bulls. Hopefully with this new measure in place, these dogs will be able to find loving homes.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…