Chances are pretty good that he will never pick up Sherry because he will find another stray puppy who got too big for someone living in an apartment or maybe got too “hyper” and the former owner threw her away. People like Shortie are no different in many ways than people like us, who rescue dogs. For Sherry, Shortie was an important part of her chance for a stable home where she would never be sentenced to life in a back yard on a chain, being bred until she wasn’t worth anything. This way of life for many pit bulls in Compton is common but not for a Pet Bull like Sherry. I had to learn the difference between a Pet and a Pit and I guess you could say, I’m still learning. It’s sort of like yard dogs and house dogs, another theory about dogs that is something that leads to high numbers of dogs being euthanized at the shelters every day.

I originally met Shortie through David and Swanee, two men who drink too much for their own good and live in the park. All of the men are dog lovers and have helped me rescue countless dogs that have tried to live the street life and failed. Our feelings are all the same for dogs, we can agree that we don’t want to see a dogs fought, tortured, or man handled and disrespected, as these men call what we in the humane community might call animal cruelty. They, feel the same way that we do when it comes to dogs, we want to save them from the unspeakable harm that often awaits them in places like Compton as a street dog, dodging cars on Rosecrans Blvd, staying clear of the men who fight dogs on the weekends socially, or the gang members that spray paint and torture the street dogs just for fun. Taking a street dog to the shelter is sometimes the most humane option, compared to what the dog may face on the street.

After Sherry’s surgery, a young man named Marcus approached my car and had a lot of questions as to why Sherry was in a cage. I explained what a crate was and why I used it and he told me that his uncle had fought a dog like her when he was younger and the dogs died. In fact he went on to tell me about his other uncle, his dad and some other male relatives that had all fought pit bulls, but not anymore, he was quick to add. He really emphasized that part, “not since I was a little boy did they fight pit bull”. He could recite every part of the Michael Vick case and knew that Vick had allowed the men on his property hang a pit bull from a tree. Sad that a 10 year old boy should know so much about dog fighting and such graphic details about how dogs die slowly after a fight. I brought Clancy out of the car and Marcus’ immediate assessment of Clancy to the other three children who had walked over to see what was going on, was that Clancy was a fighting dog for sure. I asked him how he could tell, his reply, “the way his ears were clipped and the scars on his face.” We talked a lot about why Clancy looks the way he does then Marcus and the kids changed topics on me, “How can I rescue a dog?” he asked me. I told him about the Downey shelter and he told me that he didn’t want to see all the pit bulls in jail. The other kids all had stories to tell about a dog getting hit by a car, dogs going to the pound, dogs losing an eye, trying to top each other, each story more graphic and sad than the next. At the end of our conversation, we all agreed that like many of us, the Pit bull is really the underdog and they sometimes never get the second chance that Clancy had.

For hundreds of pit bulls that end up in the Downey shelter ( the shelter that serves Compton), they never get their second chance and for many, they probably never had their first chance. We can rescue and adopt every day but if “we” member of the humane community, don’t get out into areas like Compton with mobile spay/neuter clinics, we won’t see a positive change for the dogs that we all want to rescue from shelters like Downey. We also need to overcome the misconceptions such as pit bull owners don’t want to spay/neuter their dogs. This is just not true. Most of the dog owners in areas like Compton need a little extra help and they need the services to be free.

On Saturday and Sunday we sterilized several pit bulls and were only limited by space and the vet becoming very tired. The pitbull owners were not in short supply. Neither were the Chihuahua owners. I had to turn people away at a certain point in the day, although we get their contact information, I never know if I can get them to come back to the park. However, the park has surprised me before, just how important a public park is a to a very low income community.

It’s a place to play, hang out when it’s 100 degrees under the beautiful old trees in the cool shade, a place to be a cheerleader or a basketball player or even a tennis player like Venus and Serena who grew up in the area and played tennis on the very same courts in our park, before their Wimbledon days.

In two days we spayed/neutered 75 dogs, some who might have never been done if it wasn’t for the mobile clinic being right down the street from their home or in the park where they sleep, as in Shortie’s case. If you volunteer with a dog rescue, consider getting your group to sponsor a day of spay/neuter. If you are an individual, please consider donating $100 to pay for a spay or neuter surgery. Our goal for 2010 is to spay/neuter 700 dogs who live in the City of Compton and we are doing this one dog at a time, one day at a time.