Pit Bull Notes from Seattle

When I wrote about Loca, I mentioned there are several pit bulls in my South Park neighborhood that I worry about. La Tigre is one of these dogs, and she’s a walk-through-a-field away from my house.

When I first saw her in 2006 (the year we moved in), she was in the front yard with no fencing, tied to a tree log. The house she’s tied up in front of 24-7 is on a dead-end street with million dollar, panoramic views of the Seattle skyline.

That first time I saw her, she charged at me when I walked past, dragging the log just a few feet and stopping. Scared the bejillies outta me. We named her La Tigre because of her brindle coat and because she’s more like a wild animal than a pet. Miguel has chucked hot dogs at her over the years in hopes she’ll warm up to us but that hasn’t happened.

I call Animal Control several times a year to check on her, and there’s not much they can do because she doesn’t need immediate medical attention. They’ve warned the owners about the importance of fresh water. One time she had no water and one time her water was frozen.

I haven’t seen her tied to a log since 2006 but I’ve seen her: Tied to a tree. Tied up using a stake in the ground. Tied to a lawn mower. Tied to the bumper of a car. Tied to furniture in the carport. 

Here’s a photo of her dog house and the carport where they sometimes keep her. In this photo, she’s in the dog house.

And here’s the photo I snapped of her when she came out of the dog house that day. It was mid-winter, and she was wearing a tank top that read, “What chills?” Probably a bad English translation for “What gives?” (I thought, “Well, she chills–she’s freakin cold!). My hands were shaking because I was scared someone would see me photographing her. 

In the foreground are bags of garbage she tore into and rummaged through for days. In the background is a mattress her owners dumped in the front yard.

During a late-night drive-by with my friend Stefaney a fews weeks later, we discovered La Tigre had dug a hole in the mattress and was sleeping in it. It was quite a sight seeing her come barking up-and-out of that mattress.

One Fall Sunday in 2007, we were out for a walk with Gigi who was riding in the baby backpack, and we did our usual walk-by to see how La Tigre was doing. As we walked back through the field towards our house, we came across 4 teenagers we’d never met drinking beer under a tree. They asked us if we’d been to church and were put off when we said no. I replied, “Next time you’re at church though, will you pray for that dog over there living in garbage?”

One of the kids jumped forward and said, “That’s my dog, and you’re the one that’s been calling Animal Control.” Miguel stood in between us as I said, “It’s not me but I can see why someone’s calling.” There were two girls with the two guys, and they got very nervous as the kid asked if we wanted to meet the dog. Miguel said, “We’d love to meet her if she’s friendly.” The kid bawked, “She’d eat you up.” We backed out of the confrontation, saying as we walked off, “Just give her some love, bring her inside, that’s all.”

I’ve learned from Animal Control reports that her name is “China”, that she’s been chained up for five years, and that I’m not the only neighbor that calls. In my mind, she’s the typical pit bull people have wrongly tied up as guard dogs. While I don’t believe any animal should be tied up 24-7 without exercise and socialization, pit bulls are not a guardian breed and are highly social dogs that thrive from human interaction. La Tigre is the pit bull that makes newspaper headlines–a neglected, frustrated dog that’s gone dark.

I can’t save her so I keep her front-of-mind. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day so I walked by to chuck some hot dogs at her. My aim was off, and the hot dogs fell well beyond the length of her chain. 

In 2007, I was the Pit Bull co-breed representative for Seattle Purebred Rescue (SPDR) and one of my responsibilities was documenting how many pit bulls were handled by local shelters. I compiled reports from several shelter checkers who either walked the rows or called the phone lines of Seattle shelters.

In 2007, we estimated there were 1,304 pit bulls across 8 local shelters. One of the shelters missed the first quarter of reporting and this doesn’t include dogs in quarantine. 

The Tacoma Humane Society is one of those shelters, and they handled the largest percentage accounting for 483 pit bulls that year. Tacoma is notorious for their pit bull euthanasia policy. There are rare exceptions (including a new pilot adoption program with BullsEye Dog Rescue) but overall, without regard for health or temperament, the shelter has euthanized all pit bulls since 1987.

The shelter reports looked something like this: Shelter ID, Sex, Age, Neutered, Origin, Name (unknown most of the time), and sometimes the shelter checker would include comments that I would include in my report. Here are a few of the comments from 2007:

• Female still lactating. No sign of pups.
• Buddy is 10 years old.
• 3 of 6 came in together. Owner in jail.
• Male being held for cruelty case.
• 3 females confiscated for cruelty.
• Outcome: Pit bull puppy was stolen from shelter.
  • And worth noting: The dog that was stolen from the shelter showed up at the same shelter 2 years later.

I’m looking back at SPDR’s other breed counts for 2007. German Sheperds accounted for 182 dogs with Labrador Retrievers as the next most common pure breed at 177. Golden Retrievers (145) were the 6th most common breed coming in with higher counts than Rottweilers in 2007.

Pit bulls top the charts of breeds handled for every shelter in Seattle since 2001. In 2007:  67% were under 2 years old. Only 15% were neutered. 90% were strays. 

Most of the pit bulls came in without a name, without a trace of a human to call their very own.

One day in 2007, a West Seattle Vet reached out to BullsEye about a pit bull they’d been seeing for years as a patient. They explained the family who owned him recently had a baby and that the dog’s separation anxiety was too much for them to handle. The vet needed help finding this dog a new home, and I agreed to go meet him.

Here’s the photo I took for the calendar. He’s about a year old in this picture. At 10 weeks old, Tye’s first owners took him in the backyard and cut off both his ears–another home crop job like Proud Baby’s. Tye’s ears wouldn’t stop bleeding so they took him to the vet. The vet wouldn’t give the dog back to them and released him to Pit Bull Project.