After You Rescue a Pit Bull, What Do You Do Next?

After You Rescue a Pit Bull, What Do You Do Next?

My daughter, Jane, is one very kind person. She has never been very well off financially, yet I have seen her go to great lengths of expense and effort to help man or beast, including women and children. She really doesn’t like dogs, but, because of her kind heart, she has eight dogs! One is a very old pit bull, her daughter foisted off on her. Another is a little old white dog with one black eye that we think is Maltese. He came with a house she rented out here in boonyville. He used to kill rattlesnakes! A third is Gracie, a big friendly lump of a female dog of very uncertain heritage. Jane got her at four weeks old from an Indian family who had a bitch with a large litter. Sheba is the purebred pit bull. Her pups, Bebe, Bob Barker, and Acey, are all half-breeds. Jane also has an old, black border collie, named Whoopie, that she rescued with the pit bulls. Whoopie has latched onto Jane with love and faithfulness she seems to have been waiting all her life to bestow. That makes eight dogs. She doesn’t want so many dogs, yet how do you get rid of pit bulls or pit bull mixes once you have rescued them? It is even harder after you have formed a bond with them, as Jane has.

I wrote several articles late last summer and on into fall about how Jane rescued Sheba and her three half-breed puppies. The female puppy, Bebe, is almost a ringer for Sheba, and seems very docile. Bob looks a lot like her, but is so wary, he can’t be petted or trusted. When cornered he looks dangerous.  The third is a large, male pup, now grown, that shows a resemblance to his father, one of the other rescued dogs that Pam, the dog lady, took.  He is Acey, the pup with the disposition most like a pit bull, yet doesn’t look much like one. He is aggressive to other dogs, and we don’t even trust him with his own brother, Bob Barker.

Jane has been trying to get rid of the two male pups ever since she rescued these dogs. She would give Sheba and Bebe away to a good, loving home, too. There are guys on this reservation who have shown an interest in taking them, but we think they would use them as fighting dogs. We’ve been told that dog fighting, although illegal, is practiced here, and just below the Mexican border near here.

I wrote an article a couple of months ago about how Sheba and her two male pups attacked my docile black Lab/collie, Smokey Joe, and hurt him badly. He is OK now, but the pit bulls have lost any chance of having periods of running free. We live in a horse camp where people bring their horses and dogs to ride the wilderness trails adjoining the camp. We can’t take any chances of these dogs getting loose, so Jane has rigged a three-cage complex of chain-link kennels surrounded by another fence. She lets Sheba and Bebe loose together inside the fenced-in yard, and the male pups loose there singly. Jane plays ball with them and gives them training sessions walking on a leash attached to a strong body harness.

But to what end is all this effort? Jane wants to find homes for the pit bulls, and has contacted all the dog-rescue organizations she can find, talked to vets, and tried all the other links anyone has suggested, with no results. If all else fails, she will keep all these dogs herself, but I think, since we don’t live on our own property, sooner or later we will have to move from here, and what will we do then? I’m a realist, and I know I would put the two male pups down, but Jane shows no sign she would never do that.

Has anyone out there in Gatherland got any helpful suggestions, other than killing them, of how to manage these unpredictable dogs? Help!