The City of Wilmington instituted a set of laws aimed at regulating the burgeoning and sometimes dangerous pit bull breed. I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but these regulations were instituted after a couple of serious attacks on people and kids by these dogs in the city.

The regulations required pit bull owners to: 1) register their dogs; 2) get them spayed or neutered; 3) have them muzzled and leashed outside; and 4) pass a temperament test. Since then, the City no longer has a contractor for animal control services in the city. When they put out the usual RFP, no one bid on it — not even the most recent contract holder, the SPCA.

According to local animal control agencies, the pit bull regulations put agencies’ operations at risk — by filling up these shelters with pit bulls. Since most of the local shelters are now No Kill shelters, that means that these agencies are housing dogs that they’ll have a tough time placing for adoption. If they can at all.

Now the City is looking at ways to lift those regulations, so that they can get animal control services back.

There are great arguments for regulating these dogs (although I suspect they aren’t especially effective) and great arguments for abandoning those regulations. As always, it is the owners of these dogs that are the problem and I just don’t see much enforcement of the regulations intended to compel owners to manage their dogs better.

Which side are you on?