Perhaps we should ban puppy mills and backyard breeders who produce exorbitant amounts of puppies for profit before we throw a blanket policy down that takes family pets away from responsible owners.

What's the plan? To bust in someone's house, remove their dog and go shoot it? Sheesh.

and yes, I am fine with banning them. All of them, or at least spay and neuter em at birth...

Boy that vox pop about the pitbulls shows pure ignorance. Pit Bulls were NOT originally bred to fight.. your kids are more likely to be bitten by a Lab then by a Pit Bull. People need to be educated before flapping their lips before they know anything.

Once in Rome, the British dogs were crossbred with their Roman counterparts. From the years 50 AD to 410 AD, the breed was widely disseminated throughout the Roman Empire for use as fighting dogs. Along the way they mixed with other indigenous breeds throughout Europe, creating a genetic melting pot for the bulldogs that are thought to have been the immediate antecedents of the American Pit Bull Terrier.

Sadly, the Romans would not be the last to use pit bulls in cruel and grisly blood sports. When the Normans invaded England in 1066, they introduced a new sport called baiting. Interestingly enough, baiting originated with butchers who kept dogs (called Bullenbeissers) to handle unruly bulls as they were herded to the market for slaughter. When a bull stepped out of line or exhibited uncontrollable behavior, the dogs would clamp down on its nose and simply hang on until the handler could regain control of the wayward animal.

Like most dog owners, the butchers were proud of their canine companions and their stubborn tenacity in dealing with the much larger, and potentially dangerous bulls. Consequently, [filtered word] displays were arranged to showcase the dogs' abilities and, quite frankly, to appease the multitudes that attended baiting events for their entertainment value.

By the 16th century, nearly every town in England had its own baiting ring. The popularity of baiting events was unparalleled at the time, as was their ability to draw spectators from every level of society. Their popularity was further enhanced by the misguided perception that prolonged torture ensured the tenderness of the meat.

In baiting events, no more than one or two dogs were unleashed on the bull. They were trained to unrelentingly harass the bulls until they collapsed from fatigue, their injuries, or both. These episodes lasted for prolonged periods, sometimes as long as three or four hours. Eventually, the public's grew bored with bulls and introduced a creative flair to the sport, baiting dogs with bears, boars, horses, and even monkeys!