Goodbye, BSL: The Public Is Changing Its Mind About Pit Bulls

A dog’s breed influences their appearance, but it poorly predicts how an individual animal will behave. Breed-specific legislation (BSL) in the U.S. nevertheless brands certain breeds as uniquely dangerous, restricting where and how they live.

Although BSL can focus on any breed, it overwhelmingly singles out pit bull-type dogs. This stigma is tied to the late-20th-century “pit bull panic,” when rare, high-profile attacks received sensationalized coverage alongside crime reporting. Those stories grafted anxieties about race and urban violence onto pit bulls, helping officials characterize them as public safety threats. Since 1984, over 1,000 local-level breed restrictions have spread nationwide.

The burden falls on the dogs. In shelters, dogs labeled pit bulls wait three times longer for adoption than similar-looking dogs, accounting for over 40% of dogs euthanized in 2015 and 2016. BSL is also difficult to enforce. “Pit bull” isn’t a single breed; it’s shorthand for American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, and mixes. Because even professionals struggle to distinguish breeds by sight, BSL punishes dogs for how they look, not what they’ve done.

Starting in the mid-2000s, media campaigns increasingly portrayed pit bulls as gentle family pets rather than violent animals. This study asks whether those portrayals helped weaken U.S. BSL. Researchers tested three main predictions: that public opinion of pit bulls improved, that voters increasingly support repealing bans, and that the core arguments surrounding BSL changed.

To gauge public opinion, the researchers analyzed 2014 and 2018 YouGov polls. Each survey included 1,000 adults, and both asked the same four questions: would people adopt a pit bull, were pit bulls safe in neighborhoods, were they naturally more aggressive than other breeds, and should keeping them be legal?

After YouGov discontinued that poll, the team turned to its 2021 to 2024 quarterly dog popularity surveys. These polls asked 1,190 to 5,709 adults per quarter whether they liked, disliked, or felt neutral about 50 breeds, including American Pit Bull Terriers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

The researchers then examined whether changing public opinion was reflected in policy. They identified six local referendums and used National Canine Research Council data to map BSL repeals between 2012 and 2024. Aurora, Colorado, and Florida served as case studies as both repeatedly reconsidered longstanding breed bans in the last decade.

Improved Public Opinion Of Pit Bulls

U.S. opinion toward pit bulls became more positive. Close to nine more people out of every 100 gave pro-pit bull answers to the four-question YouGov survey in 2018 than in 2014. Safety opinions changed the most. The share of people who consider pit bulls safe for communities went from 39% to 51%.

Pit bulls also became more recognized and liked. By late 2024, the American Pit Bull Terrier’s appeal climbed from 49% to 56.5%, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers rose from 43% to 50%. During roughly the same period, 14 other well-known breeds barely budged, suggesting pit bulls weren’t merely swept along by a general rise in dog popularity.

Age divided attitudes more than any other demographic factor (education or gender, for example). Adults under 25 were more accepting of pit bulls than senior citizens. The authors interpret this as a generational effect: younger adults came of age during the era of “pit bull positivity,” while many older adults formed their views during the “panic” era.

As the paper acknowledges, the earliest national survey occurred after pit bull positivity began, so the findings likely understate the total swing. The researchers also switched from attitude to popularity questions after 2018, meaning they stopped measuring the same construct; liking a breed isn’t the same as believing it’s safe.

Declining Popularity Of BSL

Voters grew increasingly supportive of overturning BSL between 2012 and 2024. Initial repeal referendums in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Aurora failed with only about 36% voter support; the four held from 2018 to 2024 in Springfield, Missouri, Liberty, Missouri, Denver, Colorado, and Aurora again averaged more than 60%.

Repeals have spread in geographic clusters. A number of states — including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Florida — passed preemption laws blocking municipal BSL. In Midwestern states without such laws, the clustering was consistent with policy learning, whereby cities emulated the choice after neighboring communities overturned their bans.

Mounting opposition to BSL culminated in the repeal of more than 300 breed-specific laws and ordinances from 2012 to 2024, affecting communities where more than nine million people live. Since 2019, only five cities, with a combined population of fewer than 14,000 residents, have enacted new or stricter breed regulations.

Anti-BSL Advocacy Arguments

Legacy claims that pit bulls are “designed for killing” are still used to justify BSL. However, advocates have progressively eclipsed these assertions by blending behavioral research with a discrimination argument: dogs should be judged individually, and laws should regulate conduct rather than breed. Critics also attacked the laws as wasteful, requiring costly enforcement without reliably reducing dog attacks or improving public safety.

Florida illustrates how sustained advocacy mainstreamed anti-BSL arguments. After losing the 2012 Miami-Dade referendum, coalitions continued educating voters about pit bull-type dogs to challenge vicious portrayals. In 2023, Florida expanded its preemption law, wiping out Miami-Dade’s 34-year-old ban and divesting local governments and public housing authorities of the power to ban dogs based on breed, size, or weight. During debates, lawmakers recapitulated advocates’ messages and shared personal accounts of pit bulls as family dogs before passing the measure 155–1.

As governments roll back breed laws, the next frontier is private discrimination, particularly state legislation to block landlords and insurers from denying dogs based on breed.

Takeaways

Laws are only as durable as the public attitudes that uphold them. One of the authors’ insights is that attitudes toward animals aren’t permanent and may be easier to change through media than prejudices toward marginalized groups of people.

This study shows clear improvement in the public’s view of pit bulls and that BSL has fallen out of favor in the U.S, but it can’t prove positive media portrayals caused either change. In truth, positive representation likely worked alongside other factors, such as expert opposition and the laws’ poor performance.

The authors describe social media as the largest outlet for pit bull positivity and an important avenue for animal advocacy. Advocates are encouraged to leverage platforms to improve public attitudes toward other maligned animals.