Is it just me or is there a pit bull mix abandonment epidemic? During the course of searching for a new family dog, we visited five different shelters. Better than half the dogs at all five of the shelters were pit bull mixes. Perhaps this is just some regional thing, but it struck me as odd that one breed would be so well represented. Anyone have any ideas why that might be?
I’m just speculating, but pit bulls are one of those breeds that has such a bad reputation, and are large enough, that it can be very hard to find a rental home that will allow you to have one. Owners that have to move end up surrendering their pits because they can’t find a new home otherwise, and renters that want a dog can’t add one to their homes. You end up with dogs that are stuck in shelters longer than usual, and it applies to mixes and breeds that just look kind of like pit bulls.
We ran into a similar issue with our old rottweiler. Sweetest damn dog, and we looked as long as we could for a rental that would let us keep her but we ultimately had to just find a new owner for her. I’d love to have another rottie or pit bull (or mix), but it’s just a bad idea until we own our own home.
Perhaps they are abandoned to shelters at higher rates than other dogs. Regardless of how frequently pit bull-type breeds are abandoned, it’s also true that fewer people want to adopt them. Some apartments don’t allow them. Some homeowners policies won’t insure them. Lots of people consider them more dangerous. Less interest in the breeds means that they are more likely to rot and die in the shelter.
It’s not a new thing. Been that way for years.
It’s a combination of two things - people who want pits as status symbols, and people who don’t neuter dogs. That combination leads to specific breed overpopulation.
At least in Phoenix, it’s either pits or Chihuahuas. That’s 90% of shelter dogs here.
It’s true here, too. When we were shopping the shelter for our dog, we didn’t want a pit bull, not because I’m afraid of them, just too much baggage, and I can’t stand chihuahuas. We had a choice of two dogs. Not breeds; dogs.
We ended up with a very sweet Pyrenees/ lab mix. He was the only one that didn’t break out barking while we were there.
I noticed the same thing as well when we went looking for a dog. Even though they can be sweet and make great pets, they can also be strong and energetic. The owners will have to invest a lot of time for playing and training. Most people probably don’t want a dog that takes that much effort, so they look for other dogs that are more naturally docile. And I’m saying that as a life-long dog owner. I want a dog who is more of an accessory to my life rather than a focus.
I think it causes problems for shelters who are no-kill or keep dogs as long as possible. If someone goes to find a dog and sees that most of them seem to be pit mixes, they are likely to leave without getting any dog at all. It’s sad to say, but I’ve thought that kennels should limit how may slots they give to the less desirable breeds. I think that would help more dogs get adopted overall if the dogs at the kennel were more likely to be the ones people would want to adopt.
When did pit bulls first become a thing, anyway? I never heard of them when I was a kid.
In Baltimore (where I lived several years back), there’s a law on the books which states that landlords are responsible if their tenant’s dog attacks someone, on the presumption that the landlord would know if the pet was dangerous.
And according to a 2012 ruling, pitbulls were considered “inherently dangerous”.
The result of these two ordinances was that landlords wouldn’t allow their tenants to own pitbulls, because the landlords would automatically be held responsible if the pitbull attacked someone. Other breeds were safer to allow, since they weren’t, by default, considered to be dangerous.
So when we went to the shelter to find a new puppy after our previous dog passed away, it was *filled *with pitbulls- and anything which even *looked *like a pitbull. All those dogs, doomed to short lives in cages, because their owners’ landlords were afraid they’d be sued. We hadn’t intended to adopt a pitbull, because we knew that many areas didn’t allow them- but like I said, that was all there was, and it just broke my heart to see so many desperately lonely dogs.
Luckily, a later ruling reversed the “inherently dangerous” designation. Unfortunately, landlords are still responsible if their tenants’ dogs attack, but it’s a start.
Breed-specific bans are ridiculous and ineffective- but at least when you’re moving to an area you can look up the laws and make sure that your pet can come with you. But with this kind of end-run around the law, it was really hard to find out if you could find a place to live with your pitbull, and it often meant that families had to give up their beloved pets just so they could find a place to live. I’ve had to turn down jobs because the area doesn’t allow pitbulls (many EU and Scandinavian countries, for example, and some areas of Canada), but I won’t take a job if I can’t have my dog come with me.
People keep breeding them. It drives me fucking crazy. I see pit bull puppies advertised all the time here, and I just want to smack these people. I’m against breed specific legislation in general, but I would definitely not mind a prohibition on breeding Pits, because there are just way too many of them. I love pitbulls and other bully breeds, but it’s ridiculous. Enough.
I’m wary of legislation, but some pittie owners need a serious smack upside the head. Most dog owners I know can’t wait to get their dogs fixed. Pittie owners? Tell them they have a beautiful dog, and the first thing out of their mouth is “Yeah, PUPPIES!” They also seem far more temporary, at least in my neighborhood. If someone gets a lab, you can expect to come back five years later and give that same lab a nice petting. If someone gets a pit, you see them struggle with that wriggly ball of muscle for three months…and then the dogger is gone. Breaks my damn heart.
They’ve been around for a long time, but I believe they used to be called “bull terriers”. Petey, the dog in the Little Rascals/Our Gang shorts, was one.
They started getting their current reputation in the mid-80s. At that time, Dobies and Rotties were the bad-ass dogs.
Pit mixes became the guard dog of choice for drug dealers. Then the cycle started. “Bad” people got them for their reputation, and then good people who wanted to appear bad got them for their reputation, then their reputation grew because so many bad and wannabe bad people had them.
Then dog fighting made a comeback, and that spurred the demand. And of course, bad boys don’t neuter their dogs, because they think dogs values their genitalia as much as their owners do theirs, and a neutered dog is not macho.
The only good thing to come out of it is that German Shepherds are no longer considered dangerous dogs, and you don’t look like a Nazi or a southern sheriff if you own them.
Different breed. Which is also one of the problems. You have a dog with a square-shaped head? Boom, it’s a pit bull. Doesn’t matter if it’s really a lab/rottweiler mix.
There is a regional component as well. Around here (where we import our rescue dogs from places that do less neutering), they are common, but not noticeably so above other breeds.
Ding ding. The shelter identification as “pit bull” doesn’t mean much other than that the staff uses the name more.
Of course the fact that dogs that look intimidating by way of looking pittish have an particular appeal to some who might not be the most responsible owners factors in as well.
Maybe it’s for the best if most casual dog owners think “looks like pit so must be a pit”. The breeds which have that muscular shape will take more involvement by the owner for exercise and training. If someone doesn’t know the difference, then they probably aren’t the type to be that involved, so the dog would be more likely have behavioral problems.
That’s the opposite of what happens at my local shelter. About two-thirds of the dogs there are pit bulls, or look like pit bulls. To me there’s no difference. But they always label these dogs as “American Staffordshire Terrier Mix”. Like that’s fooling anyone.
I agree that if you can’t tell the difference between an actual pit bull and a “looks like a pitbull” mix, you’re not likely to be the sort of person who can handle a high-spirited, energetic and strong, muscular dog.
The basic reason, assuming ‘pit bull’ can be legitimately attached to ‘dogs that look like pit bulls’ is class/subcultural behavior. That type of dog has been in recent decades more popular among parts of the population more likely to engage in less responsible dog owning behavior. Not neutering dogs is both a cause of faster population growth and more unwanted dogs, and a key factor in dogs attacks on people. The great majority of serious ones involve unfixed dogs, particularly males. That’s a very strong correlative factor in every study which has looked at it, whereas breed itself has never been scientifically shown to be a causal factor. But both things, lots of unwanted dogs and dog attacks on people have come to be associated with ‘dogs which look like pit bulls’ because of the same owner factors.
This can be taken as ‘judging’ people but it isn’t. It’s just a fact, and in this case politely denying class/subcultural behavior patterns instead results in the absolutely wrong, cruel and unreasonable conclusion that the problem is the dogs and therefore passing laws against dogs which look a certain way. Which is utter nonsense, and even passing laws against particular real breeds would be nonsense.
Of course this is a generalization. But ‘generalization’ does not mean ‘untrue’.
So yeah where we live too close to all the dogs in shelters are ‘pit bulls’ They overwhelmingly come from a certain part of the area. Our dog is one of them…because we got her from a local shelter: why encourage the creation of new dogs when so many are already unwanted? And dogs as a rule are terrific creatures, which IME is no less true of shelter ‘pit bulls’ (I’m not saying it’s more true of them as a rule, though our particular dog is the best ever 
)
Bronwen Dickey’s award-wining book, Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon, which I am not yet finished reading, seems to be explicitly building the case that pit bull bans are at least in part a racist covert attack on lower-economic-class people of color, whom many believe are associated with the dogs.
I will say that in my personal experience, a surprising number of the people who see me walking my dog suggest we can make good money breeding her. I think there’s a perception in certain circles that pits are profitable. I think that must be having an impact on the population.
I have read that nationwide, chihuahuas are the second-most-frequent dogs in public shelters, after pits/pit mixes.
Incidentally, a peculiarity of some of my fellow defenders of pit bulls is that they will say nasty things about chihuahuas, such as implying they bite more often or are ill-tempered. I know they have been on the defensive a long time, but I am compelled to remind them that demonizing another breed of dog is still not the right thing for dog advocates to do.