Adoptions manager Jessica Harris lovingly pets Champ, a pit bull up for adoption at the St. Tammany Humane Society.
Vicious beast or lovable family pet?
There are many misconceptions about pit bull terriers, said Dr. Alissa Whitney, a graduate of the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Assumptions that the breed is inherently aggressive and dangerous are, for the most part, unfounded, Whitney said. Although the breed is very powerful, pit bulls are no more inherently aggressive than poodles or Chihuahuas, she said. Pit bull aggression is just more publicized.
“Most of what we know about dog attacks comes from what is presented in the media,” Whitney said. “An aggressive attack by a pit bull or by a large dog is going to get a lot more attention than an attack by a small dog.”
Aggressive dogs are almost always a reflection of the way they were raised, Whitney said. Although pit bulls are not inherently dangerous, they can be selectively bred for certain behavior traits.
“If you had somebody who was breeding aggressive dogs generation after generation, you may well end up with a puppy that is more prone to being aggressive,” Whitney said. “But there is no way to eyeball those dogs and tell that.”
Whitney currently practices veterinary medicine at the Animal Medical Center in Covington. She said pit bulls are some of her favorite patients.
“They have high pain thresholds. You can pull blood on them and examine them, and they’re less likely to go off than some other dogs,” she said.
St. Tammany Humane Society adoptions manager Jessica Harris said pit bulls are misunderstood, and people are wary of adopting them. Most dogs at the shelter are adopted within three to four months. However, pit bulls often stay eight months to a year before being adopted, Harris said.
This is why Tammy Davis, the founder of American Pit Bull Terrier Rescue, Inc., has devoted her life to finding homes for these dogs who have “stolen her heart.” Davis’s Baton Rouge-based rescue organization takes pit bulls out of shelters and off the streets and finds loving homes for them. The organization has rescued hundreds of pit bulls since its inception in 2002.
Davis said she does not take dogs who are “people aggressive,” but she does rehabilitate former fighting dogs and dogs that have animal aggression.
Davis said the reason why pit bulls are often used as fighting dogs is because they live to please their owners. If the owner praises the dog for its aggression, it will be quick to adopt that behavior. However, most pit bulls love people and are great with other animals if they are properly socialized, Davis said.
Anybody that has been exposed to a pit bull that has been treated properly will fall in love with the breed, Davis said. They are goofy, funny dogs, but they are also faithful protectors, she said.
This is why former BRCC student Marissa Mortillaro adopted her pit bull, Beau, about two years ago. Mortillaro adopted Beau before she went to college because she was living alone and wanted a large dog for protection.
Mortillaro said Beau has never attacked or even snapped at anyone, but he has been a very loyal protector. When she was living in Baton Rouge, someone tried to break into her apartment in the middle of the night. Mortillaro said Beau woke her up because he knew something was wrong. As she and Beau walked downstairs to see what the problem was, Beau would not let her walk ahead of him.
“I was trying to get in front of him to look through the peep hole on the front door, and this little 6-month-old puppy was so strong, I could not even get past him,” Mortillaro said. “He wanted to get to it first.”
Mortillaro said she found the screen on her downstairs window sliced off, and her front door knob was hanging by a screw. She believes Beau’s growls scared the intruder away.
Despite Beau’s power and size, Mortillaro said he is as gentle as a kitten. In fact, when Mortillaro adopted a kitten she found in her yard, Beau took the kitten in as his own.
“Beau would pick the kitten up by his mouth and walk around the house with it,” Mortillaro said with a laugh. “He would go to his food bowl, get food and keep it in his mouth to get it really soggy and moist. Then he would actually drop it in the kitten’s mouth and feed it.”
Despite her own pit bull’s gentle disposition, Mortillaro said she does not think the breed is for everyone.
“They are extremely hard-headed animals, and they like to see what they can get away with,” she said. “I think that if you have someone who is not going to stay on top of the training, because they are so strong and powerful, you may get a bad animal.”
Whitney agrees with Mortillaro’s assertion, and said that the breed is not good for inexperienced owners. Prospective owners should do their homework and know that pit bulls, like any powerful breed, require a firm hand, Whitney said.
“No one should just randomly get a dog because they like the way it looks or because they like the status symbol that is reflects,” she said.
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