Pit bulls get second chance, and new home, under Hillsborough program

[Eric]

Pit bulls get second chance, and new home, under Hillsborough program
By Danny Valentine, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, August 18, 2010


Veterinary technician and pit bull coordinator Christina Seghi carries Pebbles, a 2-year-old female pit bull.

TAMPA — Pebbles' short brown tail beat like a windshield wiper in a Florida downpour.

Her body wiggled excitedly as her handler, Christina Seghi, stroked the 2-year-old pit bull's short fur.

"She's a smiler," cooed Seghi, a veterinarian technician with Hillsborough County Animal Services.

But will she turn vicious at a moment's notice? That's what the trained pit bull assessor was trying to determine.

Seghi blew in the dog's eyes, put a finger in her mouth, waved a fake arm in front of her face, stole her food and introduced her to two other dogs.

The dog's tail kept thumping, her body relaxed. Maybe even a little flirty, Seghi noted. Good.

After about 20 minutes. she gave the pit bull the okay.

Pebbles, once part of a suspected Plant City dog-fighting ring, is ready for a second chance.


Miranda Collett, a volunteer at Hillsborough County Animal Services in Tampa, spends some time with Austin, a 3-year-old pit bull. Austin is one of animal services’ “ambassadors,” meaning he has passed temperament and health screenings.

• • •

Many see pit bulls as brutal killing machines — two rows of teeth attached to a bad attitude.

They cite statistics.

Pit bull mixes are responsible for 12 of 18 fatal dog bites nationally so far this year, according to dogsbite.org, a group that seeks to reduce dog attacks through legislation. In three years, they killed 59 people in the United States, about 60 percent of all fatal dog bites in that period, the group says.

They cite dramatic headlines.

"Pit bull mix blamed for death of 7-day-old New Port Richey infant."

That's a headline from April after Thomas James Carter Jr. was found dead on his mother's bed. His tiny body had more than 50 puncture wounds. A 45-pound pit bull mix named Sidon was the culprit.

Yet, animal workers and pit bull owners swear by the breed and lash out against misrepresentations.

Experts say the number of pit bulls involved in attacks, fatal or not, is overstated because many dogs assumed to be pit bulls are not. A St. Petersburg Times review published in April found that breed was not a common factor in the 10 fatal dog attacks that occurred over five years in Florida.

"Hold on. Hold on. Hold on," said Marti Ryan, a spokeswoman with Hillsborough County Animal Services. "These dogs would lick you to death first."

It's the owners who aren't handling this high-maintenance breed properly, who have bred them for decades to fight and who have done irreparable damage to many, she says.

"We know that the person on the other end of the leash is ultimately responsible," Ryan said.

• • •

They want pit bulls to get good homes.

That's the mission of Hillsborough County Animal Services, a local and regional expert on pit bull assessment.

Since 2007, the service has given about 500 pit bulls new homes through its Pit Bull Ambassador program. It's the only one of its kind in the Tampa Bay area.

"In many cases, they would have been put down," Ryan said. "We would not have had the confidence and the information to allow them into these new families."

The program separates aggressive pit bulls from friendly ones, determining if the dogs are safe for adoption. Those that make it become "ambassadors" for the breed. Those that don't will likely be euthanized.

Many pit bulls don't pass the test.

Four adult males recovered alongside Pebbles were too aggressive to be adopted and were put down. Two of the dogs were too young — under 2 years old — to become ambassadors and were shipped to rescue groups.

Animal services officials say that they never have been sued for one of their program's pit bulls injuring someone and that the program is constantly improving. Through improved assessment, marketing and more volunteers, it is growing. Ultimately, this means more pit bulls are finding homes.

Pinellas County Animal Services doesn't have a specific pit bull assessment program, though it gives all animals a general health and assessment test before putting them up for adoption, spokesman Greg Andrews said.

"I wouldn't want to put one breed in a spotlight over another," he said. "We want to spotlight them all."

Donna Reynolds, the executive director of the California-based nonprofit BAD RAP, which trained Hillsborough's pit bull assessors, said pit bulls need emphasis because the public likes that level of reassurance.

"We might call it an affirmative-action program for a breed that's suffered a lot of unnecessary condemnation," she said in an e-mail.

• • •

A few weeks ago, things didn't look so promising for Pebbles.

She was one of eight pit bulls retrieved by animal services in late July from a man now facing 22 dog-fighting-related charges.

The shed the dogs once fought in had three layers of carpet, each soaked with blood. The walls, too, were tainted red.

One of the other dogs was missing its entire upper lip. Others were missing teeth and were scarred, or suffered from apparent neurological damage that caused their heads to bob and weave. None had a name.

Investigators said Pebbles' owners likely would have forced her to breed had she stayed. But she didn't.

Now she's waiting for a new home.

[Last modified: Aug 18, 2010 07:04 AM]

Copyright 2010 St. Petersburg Times

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humanintere...am/1115773

[Eric]

I think what Hillsborough County is doing is great and from what I hear is they are continuing to look and find for ways to improve their "Pit Bull Ambassador" program!

Now, the dang St. Pete times ruined their article by mentioning dogbites.org website. So, I'm posting to inform those who don't know but the dogbites.org website (boy, that's hard typing out... I hope my forum doesn't get dirty from mentioning that site... ) has a personal grievance against a bad experience allegedly with that involved a "Pit Bull" so she went and created her very much biased website that is 100% anti-Pit Bull. She slyly named the website whatshe did but rest assured she could careless about what dogs bite what or who. It's not about dog bites it's about "Pit Bull Mauls/Kill..." Headlines. Most of her so called statistics come from media sources and hopefully most of us here and Newcomers will soon realize that the media are from experts in anything "Canine"

Bottom Line: "Pit Bull" headlines sell and sell big time so the media can careless whether they honestly research or air any stories involving dog attacks.

From the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website:
"A CDC study on fatal dog bites lists the breeds involved in fatal attacks over 20 years (Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998 ). It does not identify specific breeds that are most likely to bite or kill, and thus is not appropriate for policy-making decisions related to the topic. Each year, 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs. These bites result in approximately 16 fatalities; about 0.0002 percent of the total number of people bitten. These relatively few fatalities offer the only available information about breeds involved in dog bites. There is currently no accurate way to identify the number of dogs of a particular breed, and consequently no measure to determine which breeds are more likely to bite or kill."

You cannot and should not be using media accounts/reports when collecting "accurate" data of dog bites when you aren't properly identifying the guilty dogs. The vast majority of dog bites occur due to human error, human involvement, human, human, human irresponsibility. Put the blame where blame belong. Humans have always been the problem and always will be the problem.

My advice to the lady that runs that biased propaganda site, first I'm sorry about your so called bad experience but your blaming an animal when humans were responsible. Learn the facts and the truths and please be fair with your agenda and "statistics" Don't let the hate for "Pit Bulls" that is burning inside of you to influence and dictate on your burning desire to do what you have to to impede on my rights to own the breed/canine of my choice!

[Lucy Loo]

Thanks for posting this, Eric!!! The article was great, but instead of quoting propaganda from dogsbite.org, maybe a little more could have gone into the subject of the Pit Bull Ambassador Program itself. But overall, any positive press on the APBT and Bully Breeds is great!!!

HCAS 's PBA program has rehomed many Pit Bulls. The shelter staff and volunteers work tirelessly with the dogs to make them the best they can be. Even dogs that don't actually make it as an "Ambassador" are still given every opportunity for socialization, obedience training and rehoming, sometimes with staff and volunteers as a "transition" dog.....actual obedience classes that prepares the dogs for their CGC are held every Wednesday night for the dogs and the results of these classes have been wonderful. Out of eight dogs that took obedience training, 4 of the dogs were CGC certified, and hopefully that list will continue to grow.

Of course, there are alot of Pit Bulls that don't make it out. That is when the heartbreak sets in, but unfortunately it's a fact. We as volunteers try to give these dogs "quality of life" while they are there. Pretty sad when they are treated better in a county shelter than they were by their owners.

Hopefully we will start seeing more of the positive articles and fewer of the negative ones........and websites like dogsbite.org will go away.....anyone who has done their research on that site knows just how bogus it is.

[Eric]

Yes, Debbie! Normally, an article like this wouldn't make it in the news section on the forum because that dogbites.org isn't about "dog bites" It's sole purpose is to create major hysteria about "Pit Bulls" and to ultimately impede on my rights to own my breed/canine of choice. That's why I did my follow reply to inform others that might not be aware that the lady who operates dogbites dot org has a personal agenda and is seeking vengenance against all "Pit Bulls" due to her so-called bad experience with one dog.

It's sad that she has made it as far as she has with her anti-Pit Bull agenda and how the media often cites her site as legitimate... I suppose it should be expected though since her statistics are off of media reports and accounts of the incidents so one propagandist machine (dogbites dot org) is basically supporting another propagandist machine (media) ... goes hand in hand, I guess.