It seems that pit bull attacks are on the news all the time. There is an extensive recordof catastrophic attacks on people that’s been ongoing for over 30 years. This is why tensions are high when discussing whether pit bulls should be banned or not. While pit bulls can be dangerous, banning them is too extreme.

According to Dogsbite.org, “34 U.S. dog bites fatalities occurred in 2015… pit bulls contributed to 82% (28) of these deaths.” Pit bulls represent a majority of all fatal dog attacks.

Often these dogs attack family membersthat took care of them. If you were to take care of something with your best abilities but make a mistake that can lead to losing a loved one’s life, then there is a problem. So, what we should do is monitorpit bulls occasionally by sending them to animal hospitals and we need to train pit bull owners to be more receptive to the needs of pit bulls. By doing these things, it will be less likely for pit bulls to attack people, and when an event goes wrong, the pit bull owner will know how to handle the situation. So by having trained pit bull ownersand better trained pit bulls, there will be no need for banning pit bulls.

Abandoning an entire breed of dogs exacerbatesthe problems that pit bulls are currentlyfacing. According to the Washington Post, researchers at Arizona State University found that pit bull labeled dogs have less chances of adoption, “They found out that pit bulls languish far longer at shelters, and potential adopters view them as much less attractive.” In addition, from the Pit Bull Rescue Central, “Sending your dog [a pit bull] to a shelter in hopes that he’ll find a good home is wishful thinking. It’s only more likely you’ll be signing your Pit Bulls death warrant.” The life of a pit bull improperlytrained is already brutal, but banishing an entire breed would mean they would have no life at all, because they are already having troubles finding a new owner and banning the entire breed removes the incentiveto save them at all.

Banning pit bulls shouldn’t be the directionwe should be heading. We are better than that; it takes such little effort to solve this problem. Instead, we should find more homes for pit bulls and find proper ways to take care of them such as sending them to an animal hospital to check on their mental health and conditions and to have better pit bull owners to properly handle pit bulls.

<Nick Ha Glen A. Wilson High School 9th Grade>