New Orleans' Gambit on pit bulls

Today someone emailed me a link to this recent story on the pit bull population in New Orleans published in the city's alt-weekly, Gambit. Aside from the bait dog thing, which comes up a few times in the story, it's a pretty good piece that points out the ugly realities of what it means to be a pit bull in an urban area in the U.S. As the story mentions, Villalobos Rescue Center is setting up shop in New Orleans ... more on that in another post, but you can get some details here.

Some notable quotes from the Gambit story appear below, which hopefully will spur you on to go read the piece. And don't forget to read author Alex Woodward's person note on his personal connection to pit bulls, "On pit bulls and writing about your best friends." At the LASPCA, more than 1,100 pit bulls are taken in, but only 81 were adopted out.

According to the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (LASPCA), the shelter accepted 7,201 animals in 2011, and 1,667 of those were pit bulls. Of those animals, it found adoptive homes for 1,889 animals — including 123 pit bulls. It also euthanized 1,257 pit bulls. All figures for the shelters' 2011 pit bull intake (including adoption, but excluding owner surrender) were greater than those of 2010, when the shelter euthanized 1,166 pit bulls and adopted out only 81. On the adoption floor, many of the dogs are pit bulls. Most are new arrivals, including two puppies: two-month-old Amara and Bourbon, who were found in an abandoned house on Josephine Street.

Grimm, a dog who was won as a PRIZE in a poker game ... nice.

Grimm, a young, slim white and brown pit bull, was a prize in a poker game. The winner gave her to the shelter, where staff discovered she was pregnant. She birthed a litter, and over the next few days, the shelter received more puppies, some with their umbilical cords still attached, who still needed to be nursed. Grimm accepted them into her litter, and the puppies huddled next to her to nurse.

A bit on Ken Foster (author of The Dogs Who Found Me) and his work with the Sula Foundation.

In 2008, Foster started the nonprofit Sula Foundation, named after his pit bull Sula, who died in 2010. The organization has rescued, fostered and adopted out dozens of pit bulls and has hosted events to offer dog owners low-cost veterinary care like vaccinations, spaying and neutering, and other services, including dog training. (The next clinic is noon to 3 p.m. February 4 at Bonart Playground in the Lower 9th Ward.) The foundation survives on donations and merchandise sales, including its popular "Pit Bulls of New Orleans" wall calendar.

A guy encounters a dangerous dog who tried to bite him, reports it to the authorities and weeks later, finds that nobody took any action to protect the public from the dog. So very many dog-bite incidents I read about include some mention of the fact that passersby or neighbors complained about dangerous problems that nobody ever had time, money or resources to address. This is why our communities are not safe from dangerous dogs ... it's not dog breeds but bad owners and unresponsive (due to lack of resources or lack of interest, or both) authorities.

On Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, David Munroe walked to the corner of St. Philip Street and North Claiborne Avenue at 6:40 a.m. Two unleashed pit bulls lay in a grassy lot 30 feet away. One of them lunged at him, grabbing his ankle and shredding his sock but not breaking his skin. Munroe yelled, and the dog backed off.   "I was fortunate, but someone may not have been," he says, noting that Joseph A. Craig Elementary School is within walking distance of the area. "Kids would be out walking, and these dogs are out there. They might do real harm to a kid."   Munroe reported the attack to both the New Orleans Police Department and the LASPCA, but the dogs, he says, were still there six weeks later. He thinks the pit bull population needs stricter enforcement. "Until there's not a problem with this, society needs to take steps to protect itself," he says.

Anyway, good story, go read.