Why are we killing babies?

UPDATE- Simon and Champ were put to sleep today at the Brooklyn ACC, poor babies.

The ACC has taken to killing babies- How young is too young?
Well, as you probably know by now, 1 year olds are regularly put down, which translates to putting down a 7 year old human child.
Today the ACC plans to put down 19 pit bulls, 17 of them under the age of 2 (all younger than teenagers in human years).
Four of the dogs are under a year old- I'll include their age in dog years and human years below- I think this helps put into perspective how little life these dogs have been given a chance to live and how much more they still need to develop to reach their full potential.

 10 month old Simon (almost 6 in human years) -RIP

 9 month old Dutch (5 years old in human years)

 7 month old Champ (4 years old in human years) - RIP

6 month old Gunther (only 3 1/2 years old in human years)

Why is this happening? Well its certainly not ACC's fault that so many young pit bulls come through their shelter, its irresponsible backyard breeders and owners who refuse to spay and neuter their dogs. There are great spay and neuter organizations, but the price of a pit bull puppy in the inner city is still way higher than the price of a 6 month old. As you can see, a puppy on the internet can go for anything from $200 to $2,000, while a 6 month old at ACC will go for $0-$20 to anyone willing to take it.

Part of any responsible rescue campaign has to get at the root of this issue to lessen the number of unwanted animals; does anyone have any ideas on how we can stop backyard breeding?

This article suggests petitioning the government to control breeders and require liscences. When you think of it, it doesn't make any sense that we make barbars have liscences to cut our hair, but don't require people to have liscences to protect animals. When you think about it, it would be much cheaper from the governments perspective-- people would have to pay for liscences and Animal Control would be less expensive.