Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Amazing Tia Torres Talk on Pit Bulls

Thank you Melissa for sharing this with us.

Most of you, if you visit our blog often have heard about Rally... the black and white Pit that was abandoned in our parking lot.

It has been 4.5 months since he was abandoned at Doglando and an absolute roller coaster of emotions for everyone invloved in helping to find him a forever home. The last two weeks the entire group has battled over the most painful and most agonoizing decision of whether or not we should put Rally down... and as it seems we may be nearing that day sooner than any of us can bare to imagine.

For anyone who knows us or knows of us, I think you will understand how painful this talk is. The most frustrating part of it all being that he is a Pit and finding him a home is just near impossible.

I mentioned a while ago that we were unsuccessful in finding a fostor home or forever home through the help of rescue groups. ARF Shack was great to us in that they assisted with getting him vetted and neutered, but all others we contacted, unfortunately could not assist for the same reasons of difficulty as we have faced the last few months.

Rally has issues. He wants to be the sweetest boy on earth, and I bet if he had one with in life it would be to find a mummy and daddy and that's it. Quite frankly, I think he would make the greatest companion to a homeless person... he does not care who it is, he just wants to love and be loved, and has so much energy that walking for hours upon end as most homeless do, would be his dream. But that is just my opinion... an off the wall one, but one I truly think he would full heartedly agree with.

Anyway, back to reality... Rally has shown to display a very high prey drive, he is aggressively reactive towards intact male dogs, and unfortunately still unsure and uncertain of people. Every dog in the shelter would make a great dog to someone, IF.... and unfortunately for Rally, his "IF" for the perfect home is just not realistic and would not be with low risk of a bite towards a person.

And I do want to clarify, that in my professional opinion, his reactivity has nothing to do with his genetic make of the "breed" pit bull, but the genetic make up of an unstable, fearful dog, paired with all the unhealthy early experiences he has had. I do not believe this is a debate of "Rehabilitation" as some may call it, but more of responsibility of finding the right home... which has seemed near impossible.

There is so much more to explain about Rally, and the circumstances that lead us to our "conflicted" decision, I would not be able to share it all in one post.

I will make it my personal mission, and one of Doglando's missions to support Pit Bull Rescue, raise awareness on the breed and dedicated a training program specifically for Pit Bulls and their loving families for 2010.

In the meantime, watch this short clip of what others are doing for the breed, and be sure to listen out for the shocking ratio of how many Pit Bulls they recieve as opposed to how many they adopt out... even the best of the breed unfortunately passes due to our ignorance and disrespect for the animal kind.

The Amazing Tia Torres Talks Pit Bulls with Ellen - The Ellen DeGeneres Show

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