Your Home or Your Dog-- PG PUPs beginning and BSL overview in Prince George's County

PB Proud
Jul 28
6 min read

In 2020, my husband and I bought our first home in Prince George’s County. We were excited to start a new chapter. We did all the things a new homeower does, getting utilities in place, researching local service providers, googling local restaurants to try and businesses to support, finding new doctors and vets, and licensing our beloved senior dog, Poptart.

Then we hit a huge wall: Poptart couldn’t be licensed in Prince George’s County because she looked like a pit bull.

We were told we had two options:

"Get rid of" our beloved dog.
Walk away from our home purchase and lose our life savings.

As a healthcare provider and a veteran small-business owner, we were devastated to be pushed-out of a community we were looking forward to joining. I made an appointment with the Animal Services Division, packed up Poptart and drove her to the shelter and appealed directly to the then–Animal Services Chief Taylor. The Chief was compassionate, indicating that he had been opposed to the law since his 2003 task force findings, including making statements in the Washington Post and to county leaders, but but the ineffective breed-ban remained in place and had to be followed, and unfortunately, they visually determined Poptart to be "a pitbull".

What followed were terrifying hours of discussion, tears, providing vet documentation, rescue documentation, shelter intake paperwork and photos, personal statements, training and medical records, Poptart being poked and prodded by numerous Animal Services staff, then after finally paying for an expensive DNA test which shows she is NOT predominantly any of the banned breeds, the Chief issued us a letter to carry approving her to live in the county and we were finally able to license our girl and keep our new home.

In the following weeks, I thought a lot about our struggle and how lucky we were we had the access to the resources and time we needed to fight the impact the breed ban almost had on our family, and wondered how many other individuals and families who didn’t have my privilege had been impacted here by these archaic laws.

Digging deeper into the Prince Geroge's County breed specific ban laws and learning more about their negative impacts in our community, led me to some incredible humans who partnered to co-found the Prince George’s Pet Unity Project (PG PUP)—an all-volunteer, grassroots nonprofit based right here in Prince George's County county.

Our mission is to support pets and their people while working to modernize our animal laws. A mission we achieve every day through our efforts to assist the dog guardians in our community by meeting them where they are and helping find solutions that work for their lives and situations to protect and grow the human and dog relationships while keeping dogs out of the shelter.

Prince George’s County’s breed ban was enacted in 1998 after a dog bite incident. In recent pre-election conversations, a former County Executive informed us the original breed ban was intended to "stop D.C. crime from spilling into the county" by targeting the types of dogs stereotypically associated with young, urban, often Black owners. These laws were a trend at the time, but are now widely recognized as ineffective, discriminatory, and rooted in racism and classism. The vast majority of the country has listened to the overwhelming evidence and research from a wide variety of expert organizations, policy experts and think-tanks and those communities have turned to breed neutral laws, that focus on dog behavior and responsible ownership, rather than placing the blame on a dog's appearance. This former Executive had too. He expressed his change of opinion in light of the research and education since his tenure, and believes the changes are needed in Prince George's County. A stance the current County Executive, Aisha Braveboy, echoed during her candidacy.

Breed bans are not only outdated—they actively harm our communities, shelters, humans and animals by:

Failing to prevent dog bites or improve safety.
Leading to overcrowded shelter. 30 years post-ban and still over 50% of our sheltered dogs are considered “illegal.” They can’t be adopted or fostered in the county, so they wait, while our tax dollars pay for them to be held, then killed.
Discouraging licensing, vaccination, vet visits, and socialization.
Pushing responsible pet owners underground out of fear of prosecution.
Attracting irresponsible breeders and increasing abandonment.
Eroding public trust in Animal Services and County government.

And crucially: Our Animal Services Division struggles to attract and retain staff and volunteers.Those who dedicate their lives to helping animals don’t want to kill adoptable dogs because of how they look. This leads to emotional strain and burnout for remaining staff and volunteers—and less support for residents as we see reflected in dozens of Next Door and Ring posts about stray animals, lost pets, loads of kittens and cats for which Good Samaritans struggle to find resources to help them manage.

In 2003, the cost of enforcing this ban was estimated at around $1 million per year and showed our county experienced notably more dog bites than other Maryland counties of similar size, income, population, education and demographics.

Adjusted for inflation, that’s now nearly $3 million annually—money that could fund:

Outreach and education
Affordable vet care
Training and behavior programs
Community-based safety initiatives
Spay and neuter programs
Staffing salaries
Shelter improvements
and so so much more.

Dangerous Dogs absolutely exist. But it’s not because of what they look like and we can’t continue punishing dogs and their families based only on appearance. It's time we invest in real solutions that focus on behavior, responsibility, and prevention.

That’s why we are asking for your support of what is currently being called LDR 98-2025, a proposal that would:

✅ Move to allow any dog, regardless of appearance, to live in the county under safe and responsible ownership

✅ Require owners vaccinate, license, control and follow leash laws for all dogs ✅ Improve pet owner education, support and outreach to prevent issues BEFORE safety is jeopardized

✅ Potentially reduce shelter overcrowding and tax payer funded euthanasia

✅ Rebuild and grow trust between residents and Animal Services

How You Can Help

1. Contact your Councilmember, County Executive and Councilmembers at Large. Tell them you support Breed-Neutral Legislation & Increased Resources and Education for Pet Guardians. Tell them to Support the Pitbull Pilot Program.

2. No matter where you are in the world, Share your support publicly. Post a photo of yourself or your dog with a sign supporting the repeal. Tag: 📱 IG + Facebook: @petunityproject @petunityaction

3. Tell your story. Have you or someone you know been affected by the breed ban? We want to hear from you. Please email or DM us your story! If you post it on social media, tag us!

4. Stay connected and encourage others to do the same. 🔗 www.petunityproject.org | 📬 Join our mailing list, share our posts and stories. Help spread the word to get more people involved.

5. Use and share our free resources. We offer microchip clinics, rehoming help, free training tips, ID tags and more to help families keep their pets safe and out of the shelter.

6. If you live, work, volunteer, vote, or have been impacted by the breed ban in Prince George's County, prepare a 1-2 minute testimony for hearings that will be scheduled for community comment on this bill.

7. VOLUNTEER with us! We have opportunties for every interest, skill set and time capacity.

Let’s work together to finally put an end to this failed, costly, and unjust policy. Let’s build a humane, safe, and effective animal care system that actually keeps us safe and works for all of us. Please feel free to reach out for more information or with concerns you’d like addressed as we work to revise and update our county code.

We will continue sending emails and sharing stories in the weeks ahead as we move toward the introduction and vote on the Pitbull Pilot Program (LDR-98-2025). The more we can talk about the impacts and change minds, the more we can drive changes.

With appreciation,

Cait Conroy

Director, Prince George’s Pet Unity Project

🌐 www.petunityproject.org

📱 IG & Facebook: @petunityproject @petunityaction