Who Will Stop the Pit Bull Holocaust?

Last week I blogged about the ethical nuances of killing stray cats for "their own good" and what it means for the animal rights movement. Now, I have something much more disturbing. Denver, Colorado has not only banned pit bulls, city officials are taking them from people’s homes and executing them.

Since May, more than 380 dogs have been impounded and at least 260 destroyed — an average of more than three a day.

Dog owners are in a panic. Some are using an underground railroad of sorts, sending their pets to live elsewhere or hiding them from authorities...

Critics of the ban use words like "annihilation" and "genocide," and the city shelter has received e-mails likening animal control officers to Nazis.

While I think this kind of language belittles real (i.e. human) genocide and have criticized animal rights groups in the past for comparing the killing of cows for meat to the murder of six million Jews, there is something disturbing about government officials confiscating people’s pets and destroying them. Maybe it's just me. This story also raises the issue of - the mass execution of pit bulls aside - whether or not the government has the right to ban ownership of allegedly dangerous animals.