Who gets to own a pit bull? Cities lift restrictions but landlords still limit pet choices
Nearly every week, Aly Shull hears the same refrain from prospective adopters: That pit bull mix is cute, but could she point them toward the small dogs? Their landlord has a weight limit for pets.
Dogs are also frequently returned to the shelter because people don’t realize that private housing often prohibits certain breeds, said Shull, who has volunteered for Chicago Animal Control for four years.
Dogs that look less “pitty” can sometimes skirt breed bans, said Shull, who is 38. But she estimates that about 80% of the shelter’s dogs are pit bull mixes.
“It makes them unadoptable a lot of the time,” Shull told Straight Arrow. “We’re in a large city, and there are numerous prospective adopters who come from the suburbs that want to help but they’re not allowed to because of the restrictions. Then, the dogs are here for months and there is space needed and if they haven’t had much interest, they can get euthanized.”
More than 22 states now actively prohibit local governments from enacting breed-specific laws, and last November, Maryland’s Prince George’s County officially rolled back its strict, 30-year pit bull ban.
But while cities are opening up, private housing is shutting down. About 80% of apartments market themselves as “pet-friendly,” but data show fewer than 10% are truly pet-inclusive with zero breed restrictions. It’s forcing a massive shift: In Washington, D.C., city officials passed a law banning apartment breed restrictions entirely. It will go into effect this October.
Which dogs are considered pit bulls?
The pit bull stigma is neither fair nor accurate, advocates argue, because the word itself does not represent a single breed; it’s a catch-all term used for several distinct breeds like American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Bulldogs and any mutt with a blocky head.
Breed-specific laws originated largely in the 1980s and stemmed from a campaign against pit bulls that stoked fear by painting them as vicious, biting animals, said legislative attorney Kelsey Gilmore-Futeral.
Since then, organizations like the American Veterinary Medical Association have argued that blanketing certain dog breeds with the term “dangerous” isn’t efficient. Instead, holding owners accountable and measuring the risk of a dog being dangerous on an individual basis is more effective.
A study published in April 2022 found that “dog breed is generally a poor predictor of individual behavior.”
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Because legislation moves slowly, Gilmore-Futeral said it has taken time to roll back the bans.
When jurisdictions like Prince George’s County end breed-specific legislation, it can help make communities safer, said Kim Kelly, Animal Legal Defense Fund Legislative Affairs Program Director.
In October, Washington D.C.’s new policy, Roscoe’s Law, will eliminate breed discrimination and weight and size restrictions in apartments, and cap fees apartments can charge. It will also allow pet owners access to homeless shelters.
“We’re shifting in the right direction,” Kelly told Straight Arrow. “That said, there are certainly issues that remain and a lot of it does boil down to housing.
Repealing and replacing breed bans can cause a domino effect, said Gilmore-Futeral: Shelters and rescues can adopt out more dogs, fewer people are forced to surrender their animals and communities grow safer.
Are pit bulls more dangerous than other dogs?
More than 4.5 million people are bitten by a dog in the United States each year, according to the AVMA. About 800,000 of those bites require medical attention, the organization reports, and children account for most of the injuries.
Between 2005 and 2019, dogs killed over 520 Americans, according to data collected by DogsBite.org, a national dog bite victims’ group that tracks the information. Pit bulls and Rottweilers were responsible for 76% of the deaths.
“We absolutely need dangerous dog laws, but they need to address the problem, which is dangerous dogs and irresponsible owners,” Gilmore-Futeral said.
Gilmore-Futeral, who works as an attorney at Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit animal sanctuary and advocacy organization with several locations throughout the country, said she is watching the landscape change.
Instead of lobbying government officials and rallying local citizens to repeal breed bans, Gilmore-Futeral said she is now working on private housing. More local governments and states are repealing breed bans themselves, she said, so she is teaching landlords and management companies about how adjusting breed rules can be more effective to increase the community and better benefit their business.
“We work with organizations to craft language that says, ‘Hey here’s how you can identify a potentially dangerous, dangerous, or vicious dog, or an irresponsible owner based on behavior rather than just based on what the dog looks like.’ Because that’s not an indication at all of whether that dog is going to pose a threat of harm to members in the community.”
Can a landlord deny a dog based on breed?
Pet owners now make up the majority of renters, according to Zillow. In 2023, 59% of renters reported having at least one pet, including 40% with at least one dog — up significantly from 2019, when only 46% of renters had pets, including 31% with dogs.
“Owning a dog is not a constitutional right,” Gilmore-Futeral told Straight Arrow. “But we can educate the private housing industry to tell them you can get more stable people, less turnover, make more money if you expand your pet-inclusive housing policies and start addressing the naughty dog behavior and the irresponsible owners, as opposed to broad-brush approaches with breed bans.”
A 2008 study found that 7% of pit bull owners reported their dog had “bitten or attempted to bite an unfamiliar person in the recent past.” That was higher than the 4.7% average among all breed owners, but well below other breeds: More than 20% of Dachshund owners said the same thing.
The study authors noted, however, that “while the prevalence of human-directed bites or bite attempts among Pit Bull Terriers may be only slightly above average, the severity of their attacks is probably affected by other traits” like their size, strength and “reported tenacity when attacking.”
Part of the changing tides surrounding breed restrictions, advocates say, doesn’t just fall to the extensive library of research that holding owners more accountable for their dogs’ actions is more effective.
It is also owed to a massive cultural glow-up, thanks in part to social media that helped rebrand the dog into the “pittie,” who are dubbed derpy couch potatoes in fleece pajamas and frequently star in viral TikToks.
Advocates say that rescues are becoming better at how they promote adaptable dogs and that some shelters no longer list breeds because it can be difficult to know what exact breed a stray or rescue pup is.
Does renters insurance cover pit bulls?
Even members of the military navigate strict breed bans. So the Animal Legal Defense Fund has been working with Congress and the Department of Defense to create a more effective pet policy.
The organization is also working with insurance companies to educate them about better frameworks for assessing dangerous dogs. Many companies, Kelly said, charge higher rates or even refuse to insure homeowners or renters with certain types of dogs.
In 2025, dog bite liability claims cost homeowners’ insurers nearly $1.9 billion, a 25% increase over the previous year, according to the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm.
State Farm does not ask what breed of dog is owned when writing homeowners or renters insurance, the company told Straight Arrow in a statement.
Allstate, Geico, Nationwide and Travelers can restrict coverage over certain dog breeds, according to research published in 2020 that evaluated the insurance industry.
While repealing breed bans has become more common, Kelly said only a handful of states explicitly prohibit insurance companies from increasing or cancelling plans based on breed.
“It’s really unfair and unnecessary when dogs are just dogs with individual personalities and shouldn’t be judged based on their breed, but really on their behavior or that of irresponsible pet owners,” she said. “It takes time for society to evolve and recognize that even in the face of clear data indicating that behavior-based policies are better public policy, it’s sometimes hard to accept and integrate that into not just our community, but our own thinking as well.”
Shull, the volunteer from Chicago, said she is one of the lucky ones.
Her landlord didn’t have any breed restrictions when her 107-pound King Corso, Suchi, became a “foster fail” – meaning Shull ended up keeping her.
Earlier, this year she had the opportunity to purchase her apartment unit. Unsure if she wanted to become a homeowner, Shull looked at the rental market, but quickly decided she should stay in her current place — there were too many breed and weight restrictions elsewhere.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
