A story in Sunday's Tribune talks of the ballooning problems of pitbulls in our community and the possibility that dog fighting is a growing problem. I have never understood how pet owners can care so little for their animals or their neighbors that they can just let them roam across the city. What if they bite or kill a child? How can you justify being such a poor pet owner? It seems reasonable that the only way we are ever going to get people to do the right thing is to make the penalties so stiff that it no longer becomes worth owning the animal. In a related item: a man came in the Tribune office Thursday and voiced his outrage to me at the the condition of the animal shelter and the number of animals that are killed there every year. Both are truly horrible, but residents who show so little regard for their animals in the first place, should shoulder a great amount of the responsibility. What do you think?