Daniella Guglieimi, a woman with partial paralysis due to childhood polio, was told earlier this year that she had two days to remove her service dog, Storm, a “pit bull,” from Prince George’s County, Maryland, as Guglieimi was supposedly violating the County’s “pit bull” ban.

Last week the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act trumps Prince George’s County’s “pit bull” ban, and Guglieimi and Storm were reunited.   Yet in the months since Guglieimi has been without her service dog, she has suffered injuries from unnecessary falls, and her dog Storm has been bounced from foster facility to foster facility.  

Not only was it cruel and heartless to take away Guglieimi’s service dog, but Prince George’s County inexplicably wastes a quarter of a million dollars a year upholding the County’s worthless “pit bull” ban (and this according to a 2003 report, meaning costs have almost certainly gone up).   Wouldn’t those funds be better spent on a dangerous dog (owner) law that is equally applied to all dog owners across the board instead of myopically focusing on so-called “pit bulls,” which isn’t even a breed, to the exclusion of others dogs, who in the hands of irresponsible owners, are likewise just as likely to bite?