Ripley as a puppy

I believe that humane education is not something that one can just bring into a community with one meeting or school assembly. At Downtown Dog Rescue, we take another approach. A lot of what is referred to as humane education by the humane community, goes on at our Sunday Pit bull class. Last Sunday, I took possession of Handsome, a 10 month old blue pit bull that had nowhere to go. He had grown up in our class, his owner, only 15 years old, brought him every week, teaching him how to walk on a leash, sit, stay, etc, then we didn’t see them anymore. I wondered what happened to Handsome, then one day Jordan, who owns Pretty, Handsome’s mama dog, let me know, his cousin didn’t want Handsome anymore and he now had the dog at his house with Pretty. To make things more complicated, Jordan’s mom did not want two dogs, so keeping Handsome was not a long term option. We agreed that I would take Handsome into our rescue.

Almost a year ago, Pretty had her first and only litter of puppies at 8 months old, just a puppy herself. Jordan was going to allow us to spay her then he changed his mind and decided to possibly allow her to have one litter. All the talking in the world wasn’t going to change his mind or his parent’s minds. I let it go and Pretty had a litter of puppies, fathered accidentally by her daddy dog, “Chrome”, a blue pit bull that is often all over the neighborhood since he breaks out of the yard when a female dog goes into heat. Jordan quickly learned that there are few “good homes” for a litter of pit bull puppies. Everyone wants them when they are six weeks old but very few are wanted when they are six months old. From the litter, I believe that only two pups are still alive today, Handsome and Ripley, a puppy that we took into our rescue and volunteer Debbie Fan and her husband Craig adopted after falling in love with her as a foster puppy.

Jordan learned that breeding is a no win situation, he learned this by experience. DDR was there for him when he decided to spay Pretty. We were there for him when Handsome needed to be rescued. Jordan experienced all of these humane education points first hand and now serves as a role model for other youth to not breed their pit bulls and to think of rescuing a dog instead of buying a pit bull puppy.

Handsome, Ripley’s brother

Last week, Jordan invited me and Clancy to come to his school, the Biz Institute at the Urban League. I spoke about starting a nonprofit and running a for profit business. However, the questions that most of the students asked were more about Clancy and dogs than about running a business. I was intrigued. All of the students were very sympathetic to the fact that Clancy had been fought and thrown away, they wanted to hear all the details. Lots of the students had stories of their own to share about seeing dogs like Clancy on the streets of South LA. Training was another big topic. No one could believe that a rescued fighting dog like Clancy could not only be good with people but also be great with other dogs. I spoke for about an hour then everyone had an opportunity to pet Clancy.

Jordan told his story, and explained how we met each other at Pit bull School. The Sunday Pit bull School may look like a 30-40 dogs, walking in a line down MLK Blvd near Hoover every Sunday morning, but for me, it’s the connections that I have made which have led to hundreds of dogs being spayed/neutered and lots and lots of dogs being rescued and kept out of the shelter. We work together, to help each other in class like a family.

The youth in communities like South LA need us, they don’t need a lecture. If you are involved in dog rescue and you want to see more positive changes, please consider getting involved directly in a community where there is a high kill shelter. I can’t say this enough, we can continue to rescue dogs from shelters every day and tomorrow there will just as many or more dogs waiting to be rescued. Mobile spay/neuter projects and getting involved hands on in the communities that need us is the only way that we will see less litters of unwanted puppies and fewer dogs being turned into the shelters like South LA where there is always a higher intake rate than adoption rate 365 days of the year.

Jordan & Pretty (Ripley and Handsome’s mama)

I am really proud of Jordan, who appeared last Saturday on the Animal Planet show, “Pit Boss” in an episode which revolved around his experience of watching Pretty and Chrome and their litter of pups. We have not been able to talk Chrome’s owners into neutering him. I have offered a $200 cash “reward” + free surgery to get this dog done. Only time will tell if Jordan will be successful in getting Chrome’s owners to change their minds about breeding. Until then, it’s one dog at a time, one day at time, in the never ending struggle for our breed, the American Pit bull Terrier.