Nobody chooses to live in the projects, but when that’s all you’ve got that’s all you’ve got. And the NYC projects were all countless numbers of pit bulls, Rottweilers and other “Scary” dogs had until this April.

That’s when a city-wide ban went into effect that prohibited public housing residents from keeping pure-bred or mixed-breed pit bulls, Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers, as well as any dog, with the exception of service dogs, expected to weigh more than 25 pounds when grown. At least 50 of the pets have been euthanized since and hundreds more given away to shelters as devastated owners try meet the controversial ban, which many feel unfairly targets certain breeds regardless of the pets’ disposition. “You can’t predict what a dog is going to be like just simply based on its breed,” Mayor’s Alliance president Jane Hoffman tells the Times. “I don’t want a dangerous dog out there. But doing it this way is wrong and it’s condemning perfectly innocent dogs to death.”