St. Pitties Day!

In honor of the San Diego Humane Society’s and ASPCA’s effort to re-home pit bulls on what they are affectionately calling St. Pitty’s Day, we wanted to revisit some of the statistics on the feared Pit Bull Terrier breeds, and reveal some new facts.

1. According to DogBite.com there were 28 fatalities resulting from a Pit Bull bite in 2015. As startling as this may sound, the number is actually quite small when you compare it to Bark Post’s report of the staggering half a million or so pit bulls that are put to sleep every year in shelters across the United States. 200 of these Pit Bulls are killed every day in Los Angeles alone.

2. The American Temperament Test Society tests dogs on behavior toward strangers, reaction to visual and tactile stimuli, and aggressive/self-protective behavior. The average score for all other dogs was 77%, while the average for pit bulls was an extremely high passing rate of 82.6%. According to the American Temperament Test Society, the Pit Bull Terrier rate is so high in the percent passing for low aggression, panic and avoidance, that they are rated the second nicest dog after the Labrador Retriever.

3. One of the biggest reasons that Pit Bulls end up in shelters is due to Breed Specific Legislation. Denver, Colorado and Miami, Florida are just two of the cities in the U.S. that have outright banned the ownership of Pit Bulls.

4. Studies show that banning the Pit Bull breeds doesn’t decrease dog bites, but only increases dog bites from other breeds like Labrador Retrievers and Boxers.

5. Pit Bull is the common name for a type of dog and is not actually a breed. Formal breeds often considered in North America to be of the pit bull type include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, and Stafford-shire Bull Terrier.

From rescue organizations to a hero dog of our own, pitties have a rich history in San Diego.

1. Katie Davies founded Pit Bull Rescue San Diego inspired by a deep love for her own Pit Bull, Bosco. She started the rescue with the help of two friends and the organization is now run entirely by volunteers. Their mission is simple: rehabilitate and re-home Pit Bulls in San Diego.

2. San Diego Pittie Parents have their own Meet Up group with 633 Pittie Parent members and 97 past meetups. They organize outings for members on a regular basis and create pit-friendly environments for socialization, training, and networking with other Pittie Parents.

3. Weela was just four weeks old when she and her four siblings were dumped in an alley. Luckily for her, they were found and rescued. Weela was adopted by a family with an 11-year-old boy, whom she saved from a rattlesnake bite by jumping on the boy just in time, and taking the bite herself. Then in 1993, after heavy rains broke a damn miles upstream on the narrow three foot wide Tijuana River, Weela and her owners worked for 6 hours through the heavy storm and floating debris to rescue 30 people, 29 dogs, 13 horses and a cat that were trapped on a ranch. But, Weela wasn’t done yet. For a whole month, this 65-pound dog crossed the flooded river pulling 30-50 pounds of dog food in a harnessed backpack until Valentine’s Day, when 17 dogs and a cat were rescued from an island where they had been stranded by the broken damn.

There is so much more to the Pit Bull type dogs than the hyped up horrific stories we are fed by news outlets. No one shows it better than New York based photographer and animal activist, Sophie Gamand. Her work has been featured on CNN, The View, Yahoo, and on several more news organizations and publications. Her website features the Flower Power Portraits of pit bulls in shelters with flower wreaths on their heads to soften their image, and revolutionize the way people see them. The series is inspired by Baroque and Rococo’s aesthetics, and the flowers symbolize the ephemeral quality of life, and remind us that these creatures are fragile and precious.

Currently on the San Diego Humane Society website, there are 44 homeless Pit Bull mixes waiting for new pet parents. On March 17, 2016, each one of them will have an adoption fee of just $17. Visit the San Diego Campus on Gaines Street, the Oceanside Campus on San Luis Rey Road, or the Adoption Center at Petco on 540 N. Second St. in El Cajon for more information and to find your new Pittie best friend.