Today is National Pit Bull Awareness Day. It is a day to create awareness and education about one of the most dumped and misunderstood dog breeds in American animal shelters. It is a day to promote the truth about Pit Bulls.
Since its inception in 2007 by Jodi Preis of Bless the Bullys, National Pit Bull Awareness Day has received alot of positive response. Today is to recognize and foster positive communication and appreciation for a breed that some may deem to be the only dangerous dog alive.
The Pit Bull breed is misunderstood, stereotyped and receives alot of negative media attention by uninformed people, including celebrities. Case in point. Kelly Ripa of Live with Kelly and Michael of morning talk show fame. According to reports, Kelly was quoted as saying, “But the gangster’s dog is, uh, I mean if it’s a gangster it would have to be a dangerous, uh, Pit Bull kind of dog, right?”
Attitudes and misspoken statements like these contribute to the negative connotation if you say you are the proud parent of a Pit Bull. Are Pit Bulls for everyone? No. You must understand the breed as is the case with any breed. For the right person, this dog can be the most wonderful, loyal, playful, funny and loving pet one could have. In the wrong hands, well, I give you Michael Vick and others who use these dogs for fighting.
So what is the truth about Pit Bulls? I asked Ann Wagner, founder of Good Dog Adoption Agency, a Pit Bull rescue, to write her thougts about Pit Bulls and the misconceptions of this breed on this Pit Bull Awareness Day. I asked Ann why Pit Bulls appear to be one of the most dumped/surrendered dogs in animal shelters. The following is her answer and so much more on the subject of Pit Bulls. I hope people will be enlightened about Pit Bulls after reading the following article.
“I think pits end up in the shelters more frequently because there are more of them bred and owned by irresponsible owners in cities. They are not always dumped, they are often confiscated by animal control due to people not caring for them properly. These irresponsible people do not neuter and spay or provide proper veterinary care for them. They breed them to make money off of them. They don’t provide proper care and they get rid of them by selling them or giving them away way too early!
A puppy needs to be with it’s mother until at the very least 8 weeks of age to learn from the mother. I prefer they stay with a their mother longer. Dogs that are separated earlier often have problems with many things including bite inhibition. I often hear of people getting pups very early like 4 weeks of age. That should never happen unless the pup is orphaned or the mother cannot care for it properly.
Another problem is they don’t screen people to make sure they are going to responsible people who will care for them with love. I think those are two of the biggest problems for pit bulls right now- irresponsible breeding & improper care. These dogs are not neutered or spayed and they just continue creating more unwanted dogs adding to the overpopulation problem and the dogs who do get placed often go to irresponsible people who may later have the dog confiscated from them by animal control for neglecting the dog or abusing the dog, or they may just dump the dog. Many of the ones who stay with the owners end up chained in a back yard where they get little care if any and no socialization which is another huge problem. That is not the way any dog should be treated.
There are also other reasons why dogs end up in a shelter but I believe the biggest problem is irresponsible owners, not the dogs. The other reasons are pretty much the same for all kinds of dogs. Someone choses the wrong dog for their situation. The dog did not get along with another household pet. The dog was more work than they expected. The people did not want to spend time training the dog, walking the dog, spending money on taking the dog to the vet. Those reasons can be avoided by spending a little time thinking about the consequences of adopting a dog BEFORE you make the commitment. They are not disposable. If you adopt make a lifetime commitment. There are few legitimate reasons to return a dog. You have a young child who is extremely allergic and you didn’t know it because they had no previous exposure to a dog. You have another dog and the two do not get along, but even that should be carefully evaluated prior to adopting the dog. The reason more pit bulls are euthanized in shelters is simple, there are more of them than other breeds in the shelter and fewer people willing to adopt them. They are mainly euthanized to make room for more incoming dogs. It’s not that they are euthanized because they are bad dogs. There are some dogs of every breed who may have issues with aggression who are euthanized but the main reason dogs are euthanized in shelters is because not enough of them get adopted and they need to kill them to make room for more unwanted dogs coming in. It is sad but true. I think the best way to change someone’s misconceptions about pit bulls is for them to spend time with one who is owned and loved by a responsible owner. People who make uninformed comments about anything should be disregarded. I don’t know what Kelly Ripa said but what merit does her comment have anyway? She’s not a person who works with dogs and she probably has little to no knowledge of dogs. Has she ever even been in the company of a pit bull? If not, she really should just keep her mouth closed and talk about her shoe fetish instead of things she doesn’t understand. The problem with those situations is that people who look up to “celebrities” take what they say as the truth even when there is no merit to it. So they can cause damage to someones reputation (in this case a breed of dog – the American Pit Bull Terrier) when they have no right to it.
My wish is that every good person who thinks something negative about pit bulls can spend a little time with a loved and responsibly owned pit bull. Then they would see what a normal/typical pit bull is truly like. In addition to that, I think getting publicity for pit bulls in positive ways may help change the negative stereotype. There are therapy dogs, search and rescue, READ dogs, military dogs and many other working dogs that are pit bulls. They are good dogs that excel at many things. They are intelligent, sensitive, strong and very willing to please people. Unfortunately those are traits that bad people also use against them to make them fight or whatever sick things they conjure in their heads. Those people are the problem, NOT the dogs! If the media would give as much attention to the good things pit bulls do it would make a significant change in misconceptions. An example is a dog that you probably saw on facebook. Her name is Lily, the Hero pit bull. Her owner fell unconscious on a train track while a train was coming toward her. Lily, the pit bull, pulled her off the track and saved her life while putting herself in danger. Lily lost a front leg and had her pelvis broken and other serious injuries while saving her owner. She did this voluntarily of her own will when she could have simply run away and saved herself, but she didn’t do that. Unfortunately her owner later died due to unrelated causes. Her current owner, the woman’s son, promotes pit bulls with Lily’s help. He is a police officer. Why hasn’t that story been broadcast all over? There are many incredibly positive pit bull hero stories but they are not shared in the media like the negative ones. I wish that were different and I wish the media would proactively make that change and help save lives of good dogs like Lily who die in shelters everyday all over the world.As far as being confused with many breeds, there are a lot of breeds with similar traits. For some reason, people have demonized pit bulls. So when something bad happens they automatically want to call the dog a pit bull. A few years back there was a medical milestone of the first partial face transplant. It occurred because of a person being attacked by a dog. The dog was a black lab. The breed was not broadcast everywhere but if it had been a pit bull we’d still be hearing about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_Dinoire
If a lab does something terrible, which does happen, no one reports the breed in the headlines. They just say something like “woman mauled by dog”. If it looks anything like a pit bull no one verifies, they just call it a pit bull. It could be an American Bull Dog, a Cane Corso, any number of other dog breeds or probably more likely a mixed breed which we used to call a mutt. I don’t totally understand why it works that way but I guess to get more attention. You know how tragedy draws people for some reason. This is really hurting these dogs and limiting the chances for them to get adopted because people hear this negative stuff, believe it and remember it. If they have nothing to compare the stories to they end up believing it.
We have trouble getting foster homes and adopters because many people believe they are aggressive, bad dogs. The truth is they are usually not aggressive to any people including strangers. They don’t usually make good guard dogs because they love everyone. They are generally great with kids and can usually tolerate roughness from little kids who do not know better pulling on their ears and tails etc. Our adopters think they are great with children. Of course all dogs should be supervised and treated with respect around children. Try this link… it will show you how many other dogs can be mistaken for pit bulls…http://www.pbrc.net/poppysplace/games/AdultFindabull/findpitbull_v4.html
They are strong dogs and no one type of dog is good for every person. When choosing a dog the individual must consider their unique situation and pick a dog suited to that situation and lifestyle. If a person is weak, or has trouble with balance a strong energetic pit bull is probably not the right choice, but at the same time a strong energetic boxer or lab is also not the right choice. You have to use common sense when picking out a dog. Each dog is an individual so at the same time there may be a pit bull out there who is laid back and gentle that would be good for a that person with balance and strength issues. Not every pit bull is a ball of energy. We have had plenty of couch potato pit bulls who would rather chill than exercise, but many are very athletic and need a lot of exercise to be happy. They come in all forms, just like people and each should be considered on their own unique characteristics. My hope is that people will stop being prejudiced against pit bulls and consider individual dogs instead of a breed as a whole. My hope is that people will become open-minded and meet a pit bull before judging them all. Once you meet a few in person then you will start to see what they are like. You can’t say you hate all white people because you met one you really didn’t like. Dogs are no different. You certainly shouldn’t hate them all if you haven’t even met one.
Also, I wish people would be responsible with their dogs, all dogs, not just pit bulls. Spay/neuter and treat them with respect. Don’t abuse, neglect, torture or hurt them. If you can no longer care for them take them to a shelter. Don’t dump them in the woods, the city, the garbage or try to kill them, starve them etc. Treat them with respect as you would want to be treated. If you can’t do that, don’t get a pet of any kind! My hope is one day shelters will not be filled with unwanted pit bulls where they must be euthanized everyday because there is no space for them and no loving homes for them. My wish is that people who fight, torture, and abuse animals could be euthanized instead of the innocent animals!”
Ann S. WagnerGood Dog Adoption Agency Inc.http://www.gooddogadoption.petfinder.com/