Pit Bull Notes from Seattle

As BullsEye Dog Rescue got off the ground, we wanted to do more with our own pit bulls. After Buffalo Sky earned her Canine Good Citizen with ease, I signed us up to become a certified pet therapy team through Delta Society.

I drove Buffalo north about an hour of Seattle every Saturday for an 8-week training class with Becky Bishop. Becky didn’t like pit bulls much. When I mentioned I volunteered with Pit Bull Project, she said, “Isn’t every pit bull a project?”

I ignored her comment, and she agreed to let us attend the first class to see how it’d go. Our classmates included: One old, fat beagle with a crooked grin. An unneutered Standard Poodle dressed for Gay Pride. A Yellow Lab like the ones you see in LL Bean catalogs. A chocolate lab. Two Golden Retrievers. And a mutt from a local shelter.

Turns out the Poodle had it out for Buffalo and went after her twice during class. Buffalo ignored him. So Becky kicked the Poodle out of class and explained, “Of all the dogs your dog could pick a fight with, the Pit Bull is not the dog to choose.”

By the time we had a few classes under our belt, Becky was a Buffalo fan. I don’t know that she ever became a pit bull fan but she was as proud as I was when we passed our Animal Assisted Therapy Dog Test. And she didn’t ding me for slathering my hands in hot dog juice. This is the photo that was taken for our team badge.

Not long after, Lorrie and I were invited to Beacon Hill Elementary to meet with 1st Graders about animal shelters. Lorrie brought Gretel, who is also a Canine Good Citizen, and she spoke with the kids about why there are animals that don’t have homes and what to do if you see a stray or injured animal. We were amazed at how many kids asked with wide, I-wanna-look-but-I’m-scared-to-touch eyes, “Is that a pit bull?” It was like we had an exotic animal on a leash from the zoo.

Here’s Gretel being such a good canine citizen that day at school. 

Not only did we do more with our own dogs, BullsEye helps owners do more positive and responsible things with their pit bulls. And at BullsEye’s Pit Bulls on Parade event this past summer, owners got to try agility courses, weight pull, and disc diving.

54 pit bulls earned their Canine Good Citizens that day. Now that’s a headline I’d love to see writ large in neon lights.

My last board meeting with Pit Bull Project included a new face, Lorrie Kalmbach-Ehlers. Anne was hoping Lorrie would be my replacement, and while I expected the meeting to be about transition, Anne wanted to re-hash why I was leaving. She sternly read my resignation letter aloud even though all the existing board members had already read it. It was a punishing conversation, and it’s one that suprisingly led to a really good thing.

As it turned out, Lorrie shared my concerns about Pit Bull Project and agreed with the recommendations I’d been making. After that night, we set out to create a new pit bull rescue focused on education and our own guiding principles.

With the help of Relaena and Kirstan, Lorrie and I founded BullsEye Dog Rescue in 2004. Our mission focused on public education, support for pit bull owners, and partnerships with other rescue organizations and shelters throughout the Puget Sound region. And we committed to not taking on more dogs than we could responsibly adopt. 

Meet Sirus, the first BullsEye dog. He typifies the pit bulls we wanted to help. Lorrie pulled him from Metro Animal Services in Puyallup when he was about a year old because he has a rock solid temperament.  

What wasn’t typical about this adoption was Alisha. She was only 19 when she adopted Sirus. She was a manager at Hotel Monaco. She had her own apartment and approval from her landlord to adopt a pit bull. She’d done her breed research. Sirus remains Alisha’s beloved family pet–and her family now includes two small children.

Alisha and Sirus, you make us proud.

If you want to meet more BullsEye dogs, check out Becky Meig’s beautiful photos on Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/28666245@N06/sets/

Pit Bull Project became the go-to rescue organization in Washington state. When a story about a pit bull made the headlines, reporters contacted Anne for comments. People as far as Texas and Georgia called Anne about pit bulls they found as strays. Area shelters released dozens of pit bulls to her. Pit Bull Project calendars, stickers, and t-shirts cropped up around town.

Anne kept meticulous notes about every phone call, every pit bull she met, and every news article. In 2004, Anne adopted 72 pit bulls and was contacted about 1,210 pit bulls.  

It was this year doing rescue with Anne that I came to deeply understand there are way more good pit bulls than there are good, responsible homes.

And the impact on Pit Bull Project was clear: Dogs waited longer for homes–the number of dogs that waited a year to be adopted tripled. Anne needed more foster homes so she started placing more than one dog in the same foster home at a time. In an effort to adopt more dogs, she began adopting 2nd pit bulls into homes she’d previously adopted to. The bar for pit bull expertise rose faster than most of these average dog owners could manage. Dog fights and euthanasia increased sharply.

This photograph is from a Seattle P-I article about the pit bull population. And for me, this photograph represents the vicious cycle of having way more pit bulls than we could responsibly find homes for. Puppies were in steady supply and the more puppies we took in, the longer it took for adult dogs like Angel to be adopted.

Anne and I heavily debated ways to get the rescue under control. Anne shot down every idea I had: 

• Don’t do puppies and focus on adult pit bulls because they’re the toughest to adopt.
• Only support 10-15 dogs in the program at a time.
• Don’t place 2nd pit bulls into foster or adoptive homes until the 1st pit bull was at least 3 years of age.
• Direct owner surrenders to their local animal shelter resources.

We were off track and had lost sight of our mission. But Anne didn’t agree. So in January, 2004 I resigned from the board of Pit Bull Project and that left a deep divide between us.

Miguel and I made a trip to Portland for a weekend getaway, and we crossed paths with Mary Anne and Fagen at their home. You’ll remember I took Fagen from a Seattle backyard when she was a few weeks old. It had been almost 2 years since she adopted Fagen from Pit Bull Project.

Mary Anne’s dedication to Fagen was heartwarming…and heartwrenching.

During our visit, we learned how well and how much Mary Anne managed this wonderful dog that was every bit a reflection of her backyard breeding history.

Her knees were bad, and Mary Anne spent thousands of dollars having them fixed. She had skin allergies so Mary Anne fed her a raw, homemade diet. Fagen was increasingly dog aggressive, and Mary Anne consulted numerous expert dog trainers. Her separation anxiety was managed with hours of daily exercise–which wasn’t good for her bad knees. Their backyard was full of kongs, tennis balls, and rope swings, and Mary Anne was excellent at re-directing Fagen away from people and dogs walking past their city fence line. Fagen had also became quite protective of Mary Anne as she matured. She gracefully coached Miguel on approaching and interacting with her throughout the afternoon.

Fagen was now a dog that had we temped her as an adult pit bull, she would have failed. And I still wonder if we failed Mary Anne because we knew Fagen would be a tough dog even when she was a puppy…

I have so much respect for Mary Anne’s fight to do everything right by Fagen. But it couldn’t change the fact that Fagen was brought into this world by people who didn’t care at all about health or temperament.

Mary Anne put Fagen to sleep a year after I took these photos because her health issues continued and her aggressive behavior escalated. This was the kindest thing she could for this creature she’d poured her heart and soul into.

I hold onto these two images of Fagen. Reminders of a human’s unconditional love of a pit bull. A reminder that it was only Mary Anne who would give Fagen her very own chair right next to her.