Pit bull lovers campaign for 'underdog'

see something else, entirely.

“It's the same thing that happened to Dobermans in the '80s and German shepherds before that and bloodhounds even before that,” she argues.

The bloodhounds had a terrible image. They were used to track slaves; they were used as tracking dogs for escaped cons. So they had a terrifying image to people. It didn't take long for "bloodhounds" to go to "blood thirsty." We had "The Hounds of Baskerville," for example. So people were terrified of them.

Then there was the German shepherd.

 “German shepherds were used by the Nazis,” Zaidman said, “so they became hated dogs in our country. Their images actually got rehabilitated by Rin-Tin-Tin, something as simple as a television (series). All of a sudden, everybody started to love German shepherds.

“Then it became Dobermans. I remember when I was a kid, seeing 'Magnum PI,' those scary guard dogs, and there was very high incidence of Doberman attacks in the '80s. Then there was Rottweilers, of course.”

Meanwhile, Zaidman points to a period in our history when pits enjoyed a relative good reputation.

“We forget that pit bulls were the most beloved dog in our country during the 1950s,” she said. “We had the RCA dog , the Buster Brown dog . The UT mascot was a pit bull. Helen Keller's service dog was a pit bull. It was the American icon at the time.

“In fact, the American pit bull terrier was actually the poster child for the American boys (at war),” said Zaidman. “The only dog to ever earn a Purple Heart in our country is a pit bull, 'Stubby.'

The tipping point

But along the way, some people used the animals for activities that were anything but wholesome. During the 1980s, public attention was focused on the phenomenon is particularly vivid way.

“There was a crackdown on dog fighting which was driven by the Humane Society, which was a wonderful and good thing.” Zaidman said. “It was meant to protect the victim, which was the dog.

“But instead,” she recalled, "Sports Illustrated" ran a story in the 1980s on the crackdown and what happened was instead of properly presenting the story, as these dogs are victims of dog fighting, it presented the dogs as being strong and scary and a cycle began.”

 The cycle, she says, works this way: Pit bulls get a bad reputation. Elements of society obtain the animals in an effort to exploit that reputation, to present an image of toughness. People train the pits to fight; and abuse and mistreat them. Inevitably some of the dogs get loose and attack people or other animals. That makes the news and the reputation is further entrenched. The cycle then continues.

  Surviving abuse

 In an effort to break the cycle, Love-a-Bull takes an active role in rescuing abused pits.

“I've rescued myself, this year, dogs that have been attempted to be drowned, attempted to be burned,” said Zaidman. “That also correlates with your street dog fighting. If dogs don't want to fight, they try to burn them, shock them or stimulate them in some way to fight. If they still don't want to fight, they are discarded.”

Even dogs who are not subjected to fighting are abused in other ways, Zaidman argues.

“If you drive around any low-income area,” she said, “you'll see nothing but these dogs chained up. When a dog is chained up, they become extremely territorial of the three feet in life they have been given. They are going to fight for that three feet of space.

“A dog that is chained up, unsocialized, left in a yard, has never been around other dogs, never been around other people, is going to be a problem, regardless of breed.

“Meanwhile, we have to suffer as the good owners what the bad owners did. There is no comparison with the type of owner I am and the type of owner somebody who chains up their dog in the back yard. I am nothing like that person. I'm just as angry as everybody else at what that person did.”

Zaidman finds considerable comfort in that point of view from a variety of people who work closely with pits.

“Every veterinarian and vet tech,” she said, “and every person I know who works in a shelter, it's their favorite breed.”

The testimony

Veterinarian Lynanne Mockler works on many pit-type dogs.

“We're drawing blood, taking samples, giving shots; not had any problems,” she said. “Lovely, lovely dogs.”

The Austin–Travis County Animal Protection and Control Senior Animal Protection Officer Philip Goen is investigating the attack on the goat pen.

“They (the dog owners) have a history of having dogs loose in the past,” he said. “We have one incident where they were out on the owner's property; they were just unrestrained on the owner's property.

“If an animal of any breed shows a tendency of aggression towards people or animals or anything else of that nature, you as an owner need to be responsible,” said Goen.

 “You need to take the appropriate steps with that animal, whether that be training, the appropriate measures of restraint, exercising the dog, socializing the dog or whatever.

“Regardless

of what breed it is, if it's showing you warning signs, if it's showing you indicators that you need to take an extra level of responsibility, you as an owner should be responsible and do so. That applies to all dogs.”

The investigator working on the attack on a man near Pecan Springs is Austin Police Animal Cruelty Detective Ewa Wenger.

“Those were not pets,” she said of the pits involved in that incident. “They were not being kept as pets; they weren't, you know, part of the family, taken on walks regularly. 

"They weren't seeing a veterinarian as they should be. They were not pets. They were kept for, you know, the wrong reasons. The breed, itself, attracts the wrong kind of owner. Unfortunately, that's what happened in this case.”

Tethering Officer Ryan Stoetzel of Animal Control runs a program that enforces anti-chaining laws within the city limits.

“I think they are probably some of the sweetest dogs we have,” she said. “I just have, I mean, I've had good experiences with them. I personally think they're great pets.

“If you have a dog that's been on a chain for seven years, it may have been a really great puppy, but the only space that it knows is that space. It's protecting that space because that's its territory.

“But not all the time, you can see super sweet dogs on a chain, too. It all depends on how much attention they're getting from their owner.”

The animal control unit also sends a Public Health Educator into the parts of Travis County with large populations of bully-breed dogs living on chains, which is not illegal there.

The educator is Louis Herrera.

"It's really nice dogs,” he says, referring to the pits. “I recommend normally (to) people types, with families.

“I don't recommend normally, small dogs like Chihuahuas for kids because small dogs are too afraid. But these kinds of dogs are perfect with families.

“I think they're not dangerous, Herrera said. “All the animals can be dangerous; the huge problem is the owner.”

And down in south Austin, a minister who runs a military-style program for middle school age boys who are having trouble with their lives, draws a parallel between the kids and the dogs. Both he says, are unfairly labeled as trouble makers.

“I see a lot of young people getting pit bulls,” said Enlightened Warriors director Rev. Nael Chavez. “A lot of the fighters have pit bulls. A lot of people in MTV or whatever, singers, pop stars, have the pit bull as a sign of being aggressive, as being tough.

“This is an idea that people get, you know, that I want to be tough so I'm going to get a pit bull.

“So I think it's for the wrong reasons that a lot of people might get the dog. 

“But the thing is, just being responsible; I think that's all it comes down to. You've got to be a responsible owner; that's the key, and that's with any dog.”

And back in Northeast Austin, two men who witnessed the three dogs attacking a defenseless man on the street and tried to come to his aid, were horrified by what they saw. And yet, they hesitate to blame the pits.

“People breed the aggression into them,” said Bill Bohrer, “and then they mistreat them, so it's not surprising you wind up with wild dogs in the neighborhood.”

And in fact, Bohrer and his partner, Tom Parker, are well acquainted with the breed.

“We have a pit mix and we trained him,” Parker said. “He's a family pet, so he knows who's in charge and he knows what to do.”

What comes next?

So what should we, as members of a society that wants to promote peaceful and safe neighborhoods conclude from all this? Many argue that, given the real-life situation on the ground, there is no choice but to severely restrict the movements of pit bulls, even to ban them from our communities.

Zaidman has something else in mind.

“I have all the sympathy in the world for a person getting hurt by dogs and I'm angry that some irresponsible owner let that happen,” she said.

And Zaidman admits some dogs just can’t cut it.

“There are limited exceptions,” she acknowledged. “There are some dogs that, something's wrong with them and they need to be euthanized. You know, they're really human aggressive. But with limited exceptions, dogs are what we put into them.

“I think we forget that dogs have the mentality of a five year-old child and that we should be responsible for them. They live in the moment.

“This problem is never going to stop unless we, as a society, stop blaming the dogs and start blaming the owners.

“Let's say we finally get off pit bulls. You think there's not going to be another breed around the corner? What if we were to wipe all the pit bulls off the earth? You don't think the drug dealers and the thugs aren't going to find a Cane Corso or a Mastiff to move onto? It's a ridiculous concept that they're not going to find some other breed to move on to.

“It is a human problem,” insisted Zaidman. “We need to start enforcing anti-abuse laws; we need to start enforcing chaining laws. We are essentially blaming a five year-old