Argument

Rules and regulations come with just about everything in the world these days, even with mans best friend; the dog. The dog has stood by our side since the beginning of time, always being there to keep us warm, fill our stomachs and or protect us with their lives. Why is it that after dogs give us their all, we place restrictions on certain breeds when those breeds are saving countless lives each and every year? Having a specific kind of dog should not limit you to where you can go. Breed bans have completely torn families a part, its cause underground dog breeding and it gives people the complete wrong idea about that breed of dog.

In the article Nuisance or Necessity, it talks about a story of one of our american veterans, Allen Grinder, getting his service dog taken away from him.  According to Arin Greenwood, Allen says 'I'm a combat vet, so I have fears." "She takes that away from me, I need her pretty bad" (1 ,Arin Greenwood). He is being forced to give up his dog due to a specific breed bans in Denver, Colorado. If a dog is being used as a service dog, it has to be certified. They only certify a dog that has been through extensive training and behavior evaluations by professionals. So why does it make a difference if it's one of the breeds on the "breed ban" list, if it has a responsible owner? Because people love to blame the breed, not themselves for what they have done to the breed. Having a powerful breed of dog, should come with tight regulations, but not banning the dogs from specific areas. Allen chose that breed for a reason and that breed succeeded as a service dog for a reason, loyalty, forgiveness, and strength are just a few of the many great qualities of banned breeds.

Each and every breed has their own "standards" they have to live up too. Lately those standards have been pretty far off. For example the standards of the loving, strong, noble pit bull have completely gone away. We see them as ferocious killers that cant be tamed but in the First World War, the pit bull was a symbol on the U.S. military poster symbolizing courage. In the 1920's and '30s, we saw the pit bull again as a great all around family dog and protector. A dog that you could feel safe about leaving your children with as seen in The Little Rascals, Petey was an American pit bull terrier (3,Lianne George). He was an icon for families across the united states and everyone wanted to have a pit bull because of how loyal they were to their families. With humans being the way they are, they took full advantage of that loyalty and turned it into a great way to make quick and easy cash by fighting the dogs. Pit bulls are not born vicious killers, they are turned into by the owner either forcing it to be aggressive or flat out not knowing how to raise a powerful breed of dog and that is where many of these banned breeds get a bad reputation due too irresponsible owners. 

According to Dean Whitehead in the article Breed-specific dog bans, "they say that guns don't kill people; people kill people. We don't destroy guns and claim that we're curbing violence (1, Dean Whitehead)." How is this any different from dogs? People train dogs to be killers, dogs wont be killers if the person does not want them to be, just like the quote says about guns. It is all about the person behind the gun, not the gun itself. And due to this thought that its the dogs fault, not the person behind them, they are put to death in some places and the shear number of places that are starting to go with the banning, are on the rise.

Hundreds of dogs are being putting to death just because of their breed. Animals that have never hurt a fly, so much as lifted a lip to growl at someone, are being put to death just because their breed. Man's best friend is well known as the dog. How can having a best friend be in the wrong in any way? When you pair up two living beings that feed off of each other, meaning one does it to make the other happy, but the other does it just the reap the benefits the other brings to them. This is what happens in the case of dog fighting. Man uses dog to make money and the dog preforms to make his owner proud. Which leads too a lot of aggressive powerful breeds running lose and hurting people; with hurting people, comes a penalty. That is why there should not be bans on specific breeds, but be regulations of who is aloud to own them.





                                                              Citation
 "Disabled Man Sues Miami-Dade For Taking Away His Service Pitbull and ..." Miami New Times (blog). N.p., 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
George, Lianna. PIT BULL, BUM RAP? Rep. Vol. 117. N.p.: Maclean, 2004. Web.
Whitehead, Dean. "Breed-specific Dog Bans." N.p., Sept. 2005. Web. 03 Nov. 2013