[Crossfire Bulldogs]

By Michael Zitz - The Freelance Star

Who's to blame? Humans or pit bulls? Back 2 Bullies Convention spurs debate.

Beloved dog actor Petey from "The Little Rascals" was a pit bull--even though the famous ring around his eye is said to have been fake, courtesy of Hollywood makeup artist Max Factor.

Many therapy dogs and search-and-rescue dogs are pit bulls.

But so were the dogs that killed Dorothy Sullivan, an 82-year-old Spotsylvania County woman, 18 months ago.

The Back 2 the Bullies Convention that attracted an estimated 2,000 dog enthusiasts to the Fredericksburg Expo Center yesterday offended some area residents with Sullivan's death still fresh in their minds.

State Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, one of the sponsors of a Sullivan-inspired measure tightening dog laws, called hosting the convention in Fredericksburg "really poor taste--insensitive to the tragic nature of Dorothy Sullivan's death here in our community."

But Dave Wilson, the Spotsylvania man who put on the convention, said its purpose was to promote the American Bully, a larger, more mellow dog that he said takes the bulldog and pit bull back to what they used to be considered--family-friendly pets.

"It's not a pit bull show," Wilson said, although there were some dogs there that breeders described as pit bulls, and some vendors were selling pit bull T-shirts.

Wilson called Sullivan's death "a tragic event."

He said it pointed out the need to stop irresponsible breeders and owners from turning dogs into weapons. And, he said, it underlined the need to keep all adult dogs on leashes.

"Any time you have grown dogs running free, that's a recipe for disaster, no matter what the breed," he said.

Wilson, 35, is one of the American Bully Kennel Club members who helped start the breed. He said it was an effort to directly respond to the bad things irresponsible dog breeders and owners have wrought.

In recent decades, he said, the American Pit Bull Terrier breed was corrupted by some breeders and owners who crossed it with other breeds to produce fighting dogs.

"It got into the hands of the wrong people and was used for the wrong purposes," he said. "I didn't want a fighting dog. I wanted the look of the dog, but not the attitude of the dog.

"My dogs are different--big impressive dogs, but real mellow and laid-back," Wilson said.

Spotsylvania Animal Control Warden Willy Tydings, who had a booth at the convention, agreed there's a big difference between the American Bully and the kind of pit bull bred to fight.

"This dog here [the Bully] would probably have a heart attack if it got into a fight," Tydings said. "It's too big and fat to fight. Fighting dogs are lean."

Tydings was on hand with John Goodman, deputy manager of animal fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United States, to pass out fliers and talk to people at the convention about a new effort to stamp out dogfighting.

"Dogfighting is to blame" for many animal attacks today, Goodman said.

Tydings said he suspects that the dogs that killed Sullivan had at one time been used for fighting, but can't prove that.

Goodman said dogs bred for fighting are usually a mix of bloodlines. He said the American Pit Bull Terrier itself isn't particularly aggressive, but when other breeds, such as the Labrador, are bred with it, that can be a problem.

"The Labrador is high-strung," Goodman said, and a mix of Lab and American Pit Bull Terrier can produce a powerful dog that gets overly excited and bites.

"Fight-dog breeders are the ones who perverted the pit bull," Goodman said.

Many argue that the typical family pit bull is not at all dangerous. They lobby against legislation they said could "outlaw" certain breeds, simply because of human irresponsibility.

Maureen Hill-Hauch, a Chancellor woman who is executive director of the American Dog Owners Association, pointed out that there are no pit bulls listed on the current Spotsylvania dangerous-dogs list that warns residents about pets that have attacked people.

On the list of a dozen dangerous dogs owned by people in the county and posted on the Internet by Spotsylvania Animal Control are two Akitas, a bulldog, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, a chow mix, two German shepherds, a shepherd mix, two Rottweilers, a Rottweiler mix and a shar-pei, but no pit bulls.

"But I've never seen a headline that said 'Akita bites girl,' " Hill-Hauch said.

She said the press is too eager to write headlines when they hear about a pit bull bite, because reference to the breed has become unjustifiably inflammatory.

Also, the term "pit bull" is widely used for many different breeds that are stocky, have big heads or have a ring around the eye.

"'Pit bull' is a generic term," said Lisa Peterson, director of communications for the American Kennel Club in New York.

Hill-Hauch went further.

"There is no such thing as a pit bull--there is no such dog," she said. "We don't know what a pit bull is."

Hartwood dog trainer Paula Thomas was at the convention with a flier that showed pictures of 25 different breeds often referred to as "pit bulls," and defied anyone to identify the one American Pit Bull Terrier.

She said her own pet is a rescue dog that is a mix of breeds but considered by some a pit bull.

Thomas pointed at another dog in the hall and said, "That's also considered a pit bull, but they're nothing alike."