Positive Pit Bull News

[mulroony]

I think I am going to subscribe to this paper...

The article is about the problems faced by a "Pit Bull" rescue group who is trying to find their dogs good homes. Very positive about our misunderstood friends.


Here is the article

[richnrissa]

Very good article!
I hate having to register to read it, are we allowed to just cut and paste it here so everyone can see?

[Ritz459]

Originally Posted by richnrissa

I hate having to register to read it, are we allowed to just cut and paste it here so everyone can see?

Yes, could you please? (if you include the link down at the bottem will it be allowed?) Because I really, really, really do NOT want to register, but I do want to see this article.

[richnrissa]

Taken in its entiritey from Kansascity.com The Kansas City Star

Pit bulls need love, too
Group seeks homes — and a better image — for the denigrated dogs

By LISA GUTIERREZ The Kansas City Star


Melissa Zarda and her fellow dog lovers have a problem.

They’ve rescued dogs, some of them diseased, chewed-up or beaten.Now they need to find them safe, loving homes. There’s Polly Pocket, a petite blonde with a red nose and hazel eyes. Polly Pocket needs a “forever family,” as do Donor, who has metrosexual tendencies and likes to have his chest hair blow-dried, and Pink, a white-faced goofball.

Here’s the problem: They’re all pit bulls.

Would you play kissy-face with one? Zarda and about 30 other volunteers of Missouri Pit Bull Rescue hope that you will and that you’ll fall in love with one and take one home. You’re invited to a Petsmart in Olathe on Sunday for free pit bull kisses.

At one adoption, “there would be some people who would come up and be in love with the dog. Then we’d tell them, ‘It’s a pit bull,’ and all of a sudden they’re startled and back up,” Zarda said. “Those are the ones that bum us out the most.

“But then we see a lot of people who come up and tell us ‘These are good dogs. They get a bum rap.’ They don’t see a breed. They just see a dog.”

Zarda and her compatriots have the thankless task of being FOPBs — Friends of Pit Bulls. It’s a lonely cause. Most people won’t go near a pit bull, let alone touch one, let alone take one home. Some people cross the street when they see a pit bull coming their way.

Some whisper “baby killer.”

While cities are banning them as pets, people like Zarda are trying to get them adopted.

That makes FOPBs a breed unto themselves. They can’t even disclose where they keep their rescued dogs — most come from Kansas City’s animal shelter — because they’re afraid bad guys will steal them and use them in fights. That’s how some of these dogs nearly lost their lives in the first place.

Just try being a pit bull advocate, especially in the aftermath of a fatal attack like the one last month in San Francisco when a pit bull, a family pet, killed its 12-year-old owner.

Try getting media attention for adoption events.

When Zarda tried to list one on the community calendar of a Kansas City TV station, she was turned down because it wasn’t an “appropriate” listing.

Or try promoting a breed that’s banned in Denver, Miami, Cincinnati and an increasing number of U.S. cities. Denver made headlines this week over news that has pit bull owners up in arms. The city banned the breed in 1989 after two fatal attacks and in April won a court challenge that left it in place.

The ban is one of toughest in the nation, and since May, Denver has impounded 380 pit bulls and destroyed at least 260, according to published reports. Now owners are scrambling to hide their dogs or send them elsewhere to live.

This week The Associated Press reported that the American Canine Foundation calculated rates of human dog-bite fatalities by breed and found that pit bulls bite at a lower rate than many other dogs.

In the Kansas City area, several communities on the Kansas side have banned pit bulls. Overland Park’s ordinance considers the pit bull a “dangerous animal,” along with venomous snakes and wolves.

“Can you imagine?” Zarda said last week as she watched a volunteer cradle a rescued dog in her lap like an oversized baby.

“This guy a month ago was probably on a chain in some thug’s back yard. And this is all he wanted,” Zarda said as Chimichanga the pit bull slobbered all over the woman’s face.

The pit bull is a true underdog. Even the name works against it.

Pit — dark, fiery, hellish.

Bull — strong, mean, aggressive.

PIT BULL. As in these headlines:

“Woman loses ear in pit bull attack.”

“Mother recounts daughter’s pit bull attack.”

“Bloody, deadly pit bull attack.”

“4-year-old critical after pit bull attack.”

“The word ‘pit bull’ is such a stigma,” said rescue volunteer Jennifer Aday, a fund-raising consultant who lives in Independence. “When you hear that word there is an instant image, good dogs gone bad.”

That wasn’t always the case.

The pit bull is said to be a cross between a bulldog and a terrier. The bulldog was bred for bull baiting, an English sport in which a bull was tethered in place and dogs were let loose to attack it.

Henry VIII was a fan of the sport, during which the bulldogs were often disemboweled or thrown into the crowd. It was cruel for both bull and dog, and public outcry forced the English government to ban the sport in 1835.

But that just pushed the fighting underground. And instead of dog-on-bull, it became dog-on-dog. To create a lighter, more muscular fighter, breeders crossed the bulldog with the English black-and-tan terrier, resulting in the “bull and terrier” that eventually found its way to America in the mid-1800s.

The British loved the new breed — fierce in the ring but not aggressive toward humans, which made it easy to train. It was so good around children that it became known as the “nanny dog.” Americans embraced it, too, and even gave it new names. Pit bull was one.

The dog traveled west with the pioneers — Laura Ingalls Wilder had a pit bull — and by the early 20th century it was one of the country’s favorite dogs. It was a star, the mascot for RCA and Buster Brown Shoes. Theodore Roosevelt had one. A postage stamp of Helen Keller showed her with her pit bull at her feet.

Fans petitioned the American Kennel Club to recognize it so it could compete in dog shows. In 1936 the AKC agreed to register the breed under the name Staffordshire Terrier, later revising it to American Staffordshire Terrier. Now the term “pit bull” is used loosely, often also describing the American Pit Bull Terrier and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

Some say it has become the pit bull’s “turn” to fall from grace.

In the 1970s the Doberman was considered the spawn of Satan; in the ’90s rottweilers were the bad dog. Advocates and even some animal control officers blame irresponsible breeders and equally irresponsible owners for the pit bull’s bad rap.

It’s tougher refuting the statistics. In 2000, when researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined data on deadly dog attacks between 1979 and 1998, they found that at least 25 breeds had been involved.

But pit bull-type dogs and rottweilers were involved in more than half of the deaths for which officials could identify the breed.

“That report will haunt me for the rest of my friggin’ life,” said Marcy Setter, an FOPB.

The computer consultant and pit bull owner in Michigan runs a Web site called www.understand-a-bull.com , devoted to all the latest news about the breed.

“I think on a daily basis, people see them as mean and human-aggressive dogs,” Setter said. “Our goal would be to get them back to the image of the 1900s when they represented the country in World War I posters.”

Their two biggest obstacles in their uphill public relations campaign: the media — FOPBs don’t like the media much — and breed-specific legislation that bans pit bulls in a growing number of cities across the country. Ban proponents say that the laws keep their communities safe.

But not everyone agrees. The 2000 report from the CDC, conducted with the Humane Society of the United States and the American Veterinary Medical Association, found that laws banning specific dog breeds are ineffective.

Any breed of dog can be trained to be aggressive and to attack, the report said, and eliminating certain breeds will only make irresponsible owners find a new breed to train.

Many factors go into biting risk, including the health of the dog and how it is raised, researchers said, adding that the research doesn’t exist that shows one dog is more likely to kill than others.

The report’s recommendation: Look at the people responsible for the bites and attacks. Strengthen leash laws. Teach responsible dog ownership.

Rob McGraw would second that.

McGraw, vice president of sales and marketing for New Theatre Restaurant, and his family in Overland Park are the proud owners of a pit bull named Lollipop.

They adopted her from the Missouri Pit Bull Rescue folks, not knowing at the time about their town’s pit bull restrictions.

They found out the hard way earlier this year when they took her for a walk not far from their house and an animal control officer stopped them and asked to see their dangerous animal permit.

“I said, ‘You know, I don’t have a dangerous animal permit because I don’t have a dangerous animal,’ ” McGraw said.

It took two letters from vets and several phone calls to get the city to agree that Lollipop is predominately Boston terrier.

So now, in the eyes of the law, the dog with the wiggly butt who loves children is not a dangerous animal after all.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...g/12199425.htm

*admin note* is this ok? i'm hoping

[Ritz459]

What a good article!! Go Lisa Gutierrez!! Go the The Kansas City Star for pubishing it!!! Yey!

[mulroony]

I sent her an email thanking her

[elegy]

Originally Posted by mulroony

I sent her an email thanking her

could you either post her email or pm it to me so that i could do the same.

[mulroony]

lgutierrez@kcstar.com

Lisa Gutierrez

Although I never did get any response, but this is what their site said...

[elegy]

thanks. i get about half and half responders and not responders when i email people like this. i don't care if they respond, i just want them to know i support them.