Pit bulls: Man's best friend?
The following article was run April 24th, 1996 on the front cover of the Stamford Advocate

They once had names like Beast, Satan, Jaws, Psyco, Assassin and Rage. Now they're called Buster, Dancer, Tessie, Banjo,Bart and George. They're pit bulls and pit bull mixes rescued from fighting rings, drug dealers and backyard breeders -- often in the cruelest circumstances -- by Stamford animal control officers.

In spite of their reputation for viciousness, many of the dogs have become much-loved pets, adopted by families in New Canaan, Greenwich, Norwalk and North Stamford.

In the last year, well over 40 pit bulls have been adopted from the Stamford pound, most through Adopt-A-Dog, said Marsha Biggar, who serves as liaison between the pound and the non-profit Greenwich agency that finds homes for unwanted dogs.
"It's people, not pit bulls, who have maligned the breed," Biggar said.

"People don't call up Adopt-A-Dog and say 'Gee, I want a pit bull.' They call asking for a nice family dog and I show them a pit bull terrier." Biggar said. "When I tell them what it is, they say, 'Oh no.' Then I launch into my educational lecture. But the truth is, we have not had a single serious problem with any of the pit bull adoptions. In fact, people tell us their pit bull is the best dog they've ever had. Some come back for a second one."

Linda Morrissey of Norwalk, said a pit bull named Banjo was all the education she needed about the breed.
"I never in a million years thought I'd own a pit bull. Now I own a 90 pound one." Morrissey said. "I called Adopt-A-Dog and they sent me to the Stamford pound and this dog caught my eye. When they told me what it was, I was taken aback. I was ignorant, but not enough to let it stop me from looking at the source of my ignorance."

She learned that Banjo had been taken from a house in Stamford along with several other dogs in a cruelty case.
"Someone in the house was trying to train them to be fighters." Morrissey said. "Banjo was injured and severely dehydrated."
For three weeks, Morrissey visited Banjo in the pound before adopting him.

"He thought everyone wanted to hurt him." said Morrissey, who's had Banjo for a year. "Now he is the best. I'd always had dogs -- German shepherds, Labs, Newfoundlands -- but this dog has given me more affection and loyalty than any other animal. I have cats, nephews, and I've never had a problem. Banjo sleeps with me, cuddles me. I trust him completely."

But across the United States, pit bulls have an image of violence. Stamford, like many other cities, has had its share of attacks, with about half a dozen reported in recent years. An attack on two teenage girls in New Haven and another on a boy in West Haven earlier this month prompted state Sen. Win Smith Jr., R-Milford, to announce last week that he intends to propose a measure that would ban the sale and possession of pit bulls in Connecticut. The trouble with pit bulls is they posses a quality that could either make them a good family dog or the favorite of owners with ill intent, said Rob Mullin, who owns K-9 Wizard & Co. in Trumbell and trains puppies, problem dogs, sporting dogs, show dogs, and even police dogs in narcotics and explosives detection.

What pit bulls want to do most, Mullin said, is please humans. "A strong-characteristic of pit bulls is that they want to make you happy," said Mullin, whom Adopt-A-Dog hires to evaluate dogs before they are adopted and to follow up with families afterwards. "If being aggressive makes you happy, the dog will become more aggressive. Pit bulls are especially good at pleasing people since they are strong and smart, they learn quickly and they are very adaptable. And because of their vicious background - not nature- people think they are aggressive. So they attract a certain kind of owner." Pit bulls' reputation for fighting dates back at least 200 years, when their ancestors, English bull dogs, were trained for bloodsport, Mullin said. Their job was to bring down bulls in a ring for entertainment. Interestingly, the result has been that pit bulls are "pliable" not "hard" Mullin said. "A hard dog is one that doesn't worry about, say, jumping in ice or plowing through a thicket becase once it has it in its mind to do something, there's very little that will stop it," he said. "Most pit bulls aren't hard. It's more that they're pliable to what their owner wants." Sometimes too pliable, Biggar said. "By the time they get to the pound and I see them, they are torn to shreds, starving, bleeding from their ears, faces or legs." Biggar said. "Some have been tied to fences for weeks. Some have bullet wounds. One was found in a pool of blood wagging its tail when an animal control officer went to pick it up. Pit bulls go that far because they have a high tolerance for pain and they want to please their owners so much."

Those same two characteristics are what make them excellent pets, said Tom Maxson, a Norwalk man who, with his wife, just adopted a pit bull they call Marcus. Two years ago on New Year's Eve, the Maxons took in a starving, freezing stray pit bull they liked so much that, after it died, they wanted to get another one. Maxson said he remembers the time a neighbor's toddler stood on the pit bull's paws and how the dog, though wincing simply waited for the child to step off. The Maxsons adopted Marcus last week. At the pound, Marcus jumped and barked and "tried to look mean." Maxson siad. Then one of the animal control officers took him out of his cage. "He looked worried." Maxson said. "And he was a leaner. He leaned on your leg or your foot or wherever he could. I'm a sucer for leaners. In the week Marcus has been at their home, "he's very bashful and has yet to bark," Maxson said. I grew up having all kinds of dogs, but I've found that pit bulls are the most affectionate and by far the smartest," he said. " Marcus is as cute as they come."

Susan O'Rourke knew that when she first met her pit bull, Tessie, at the pund. But friends, neighbors and relatives almost changed her mind. "I live in New Canaan and all my friends here are hightly educated. But when I took Tessie home, they had a fit," said O'Rourke, who lives with her husband and two boys, ages 7 and 9. "Some of them said, 'I can't let my kids come over you house any more.' One couple said 'We didn't think you were like that.' After a while I started to question what I was doing. It was then that Tessie came down with the often-deadly Parvo virus. O'Rourke vowed to herself that, if the dog lived, she would keep her. Tessie survived the virus. "I thought that if she could survive this, it was meant to be. It's now a year and a half later and I haven't regretted it for a moment." O'Rourke said. "This dog is smart, playful, affectionate and loves to sit and watch TV. I've had many other kinds of dogs, but this one is calmer than a Lab or a golden retreiver and easier to train. We say Tessie is a love bucket with a hole in it, because you can't give her enough." As for those wary friends and relatives? "My brother-in-law now thinks she's a great dog, they love her at the vet's office, my parents want to get a pit bull and most of my friends aren't afraid," O'Rourke siad. "There are always going to be some people who won't be convinced. That's the sad part, considering how loving these dogs are." Biggar said there are some in the breed that are unsuitable for adoptions, but that's true for any breed. Two of the worst bite cases reported last year in Stamford, for example, involved golden retrievers, she said.

Mullen said he carefully evaluates each dog before it is adopted. The keys are sociability and stability -- how comfortable the dog is being handled by people, how it tolerates the presence of other animals, and how stable its personality is, Mullin siad. " Most of the pit bulls at the pound did not have what it takes to be a fighter -- that's how they ended up there," he said. "They tend to be very sociable." Gina Battista of Greenwich would agree. She and her husband took home a pitbull mix named George two years ago and are considering adopting another. "There's one there now with chopped-off ears that could use a home," Battista said. "I believe there are pit bulls that aren't safe, but I know there are a lot that are safe. They are wonderful dogs."

Source: Animal Life Savers

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