Last October was a hard time for me personally. I suffered a very tragic personal loss and found myself in a sad emotional space that was difficult to navigate.

I remember the first day after the loss that I came back to work at the Sonoma Humane Society, where I am the shelter veterinarian. My chest felt heavy and my step a bit uncertain as I walked down the hallway and tried to summon the courage to carry on with my daily routine.
And then, just I was trying to gather my resolve, I looked to the left and into the window of our isolation dog ward where I saw an utterly pathetic looking Pit Bull puppy. He had no hair, was covered in scabs and mange, had goopy eyes, and looked absolutely lost and helpless.
He needed me.

And, quite frankly, I needed him.

I took him home to foster and care for while we got him back on his feet medically and, needless to stay, he never left. It took months for this sweet boy to recover, slowly regaining his beautiful auburn coat and the energy and spirit of a young dog who had learned to trust again.
He has been with us for the past seven months and helping him along his way helped me to not only heal from my own personal hardship, but also has increased my awareness and sensitivity to the plight of Pit bulls.
Pit bulls are the number one bred and number one killed dog in the United States. They represent up to 75% of all dogs in some shelters and conservatives estimates report that 2,800 Pit Bulls are killed in shelters each day – that is about one every thirty seconds.
They have a 93% euthanasia rate and some reports show that only 1 in 600 will be adopted in some areas.

Pit Bulls are severely stigmatized, unfairly portrayed in the media, and Pit Bulls themselves and the folks who share their homes with them suffer enormous prejudice and unfair judgment as a result.

As if this isn’t enough, they are also the most common breed used in illegal dog fighting – a gruesome and horrific reality that still exists all over the world.
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the Central Valley doing a dog rescue for the other severely overrepresented breed in shelters in California – Chihuahuas. I was there picking Chihuahuas, there was no shortage of that breed, but there were sure a lot of Pit bulls, too.

Brown ones. Blue ones. Low ones. Tall ones. Ears cropped. Ears floppy. Stout. Lean. Brindle. Spotted. There was an adorable pair of two huge Pitties that were sharing a small half of a dog kennel that was sitting unassembled on the floor. They barely fit in there but were piled on top of one another, finding comfort in each other’s presence and displaying a love and camaraderie that was beautiful to watch.

I couldn’t save those dogs. I didn’t have anywhere to send them. No one wants Pit Bulls. No one.

So, I had to leave them behind – those absolutely beautiful, young, strapping, dignified animals—all destined to die because of their breed mix.
It’s unacceptable. This is a crisis. There are many wonderful groups trying to help Pitties, but all of us could do a lot more to step up and do our part to bring about some real change for the breed.

That is why Compassion without Borders is committed to starting a program in our community to help the Pit Bulls. We will be having a meeting on June 5th at our office in Santa Rosa at 6:30 to bring in key folks to the table to come up with a strategy as to how we can target this demographic of dogs and get them vaccinated, sterilized, and keep them out of our shelters.
If you live in Sonoma County and you care about dogs, you should come. These are the animals that need us. These are the ones that are dying every day.

 Please contact us if you are interested in attending or participating in any way.