The Pit Bull Conundrum.

I've been thinking a lot about dogs.  I'm trying to find a new dog.  The search has been more difficult than I ever imagined.  I have a lot to say on the subject, maybe too much, but that's what blogs are for right?  I will get to all of that once I figure out what I am doing.  For the moment, I want to get some of the clutter out of my head. 


I am not trying to start any debates with this, I know that Pit Bulls are a touchy subject.  If there are any Pit Bull friends out there starting to feel like you need to jump in and defend your beloved companion, please, there is no need.  I have nothing against the dogs.  The dogs are not the problem.  The animals are never the problem. 

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Twenty years ago, the animal shelter I worked in would not adopt out a pit bull.  That policy had nothing to do with what the people who worked in or ran the shelter wanted, it was a dictate of the insurance company.  The shelter was funded by the county and the county would not fund it without liability insurance.  It wasn't a choice.

I never agreed with the practice, but twenty years ago, it wasn't much of an issue.  In all the years that I worked in that shelter we had ZERO pit bulls brought in.  None, nada, zip, zilch.  To that date, the shelter saw an average on ONE pit bull per DECADE. 

It was just about this time that pit bull advocacy really started gaining ground.  The no-adoption policy was being challenged all over the country.  The campaign to change the negative image associated with these dogs was just taking hold and the crusade to “save the misunderstood pit bulls” was really taking off.  Suddenly, even calling them 'Pit Bulls' was anathema.  They were American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers or American Staffordshire Terriers.

That campaign to end the persecution of the breed hasn't been terribly successful, although they did manage to do away with many of the no-adoption policies, including at 'my' shelter.  The dogs still face most of the same challenges that they did twenty years ago.  However, the crusade to 'save' them has had one major, unintended consequence.  It led directly to a massive surge in their popularity, which in turn means that they are suffering through the biggest Pit-Bull-baby-boom ever.  They are now the NUMBER ONE most often bred dog today.  They are also the dogs most often turned into shelters.  There are more of them now than there ever have been and there are more of them euthanized in shelters than ever before.  They now make up 35% of all dogs turned into shelters in the US and that number is as high as 65% in urban shelters.  Last week, I looked at the dogs available in the shelter where I used to work - twelve out of fifteen dogs were purebred Pit Bulls.

If ever there were a living embodiment of good intentions gone horribly wrong, Pitt Bulls are it.  I see the results of this phenomenon every time I drive into work and it plays out in one of two ways:

Scenario 1:  The gang boys strut down the street with their huge, drooping jeans bagging around their knees, ear-buds dangling.  Each group has at least one pit bull straining at the end of a heavy chain lead. 

These gangs routinely breed these dogs to sell to their friends.  I see at least 4-6 of these dogs each day.

Scenario 2:  A young woman in color-coordinated, matching exercise gear is jogging with her very well-mannered, sleek and shiny pit bull at her side.  The dog is missing half of one ear, has numerous scars on his face and is wearing a hot pink harness with little purple hearts and peace signs on it.  

This is one of the crusaders.  She and the three other young woman I see her with rescued their dogs from the local shelter.  Their dogs were produced by one of the first group.  They are doing a great job of demonstrating that these certainly can be very nice, well behaved dogs.  

I honestly can't decide which of these groups is a bigger problem for these dogs.  On the surface, the would-be gang-bangers are the problem, but it is the tireless advocates that have pushed the dogs into such prominence and they die by the thousands because of it.  

I don't know how to cram this genie back in its bottle.  As long as the would-be badasses think it is cool to have a big, mean dog at the end of a chain, they are going to keep breeding them.  As long as we keep promoting them as the perfect pet, they will remain popular, which is the worst thing that can happen to a breed.  At this point, all these dogs can hope for is that this fad, like most others, will finally run its course and they can fall back into obscurity to lick their wounds.