Shaw Pit Bull Rescue

🎃🐾 FOOD ISN’T A LUXURY. IT’S A NECESSITY. 🐾🎃

The costumes may be cute, but the need behind our Bag-a-Day Food Fundraiser is very real.

Our Adopt-a-Bulls eat every single day. There’s no skipping a meal, putting food on hold, or waiting until next month. Keeping their bowls full is one of the most basic — and most important — things we do for them.

We’re asking for one bag of food a day to help keep up with what our dogs need. Each bag is $48, but donations of any amount help us get closer to that daily goal.
https://www.facebook.com/donate/1966469464024360/

No tricks. No extras. Just food for the dogs who depend on us. ❤️

🎃 Help us keep the bowls full.
🐾 Help us reach our Bag-a-Day goal.
🍽️ Because an empty bowl is never an option.

FROM OUR WEBSITE
Some of our favorite excerpts from Bronwen Dickey's "Pit Bull: Battle Over an American Icon"

"In the 1970's everything went terribly wrong. The crime of dog fighting exploded in the headlines, and the well-intentioned, well publicized crusade to stamp out a barbaric form of animal torture unwittingly made it more popular. Once the reporters and misinformed activists cast the dogs as willing participants in their own abuse, pit bulls were exiled to the most turbulent margins of society, where a cycle of poverty, violence, fear and desperation had already created a booming market for aggressive dogs."

"Dogs have evolved to understand us better over the millennia, but in modern pet culture we appear doomed to understand them less."

"In late August 1974, Duncan Wright, executive director of the American Dog Owners Association (and a very vocal animal activist, former physicist and Great Pyrenees breeder) told The New York Times reporter, Wayne King, that the main fighting hubs were Chicago, Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Oklahoma... ten days later, he said the 'six major dog-fighting centers' were the New York City area, lower New England, Southern California, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania. When a local reporter checked with police, however, he couldn't find any evidence to substantiate that claim. By October, Wright claimed that Connecticut was a major concern, but the local humane society said that it had never received any complaints."

"In addition to speaking with Duncan Wright, Wayne King attended a dogfight in Chicago. His two primary contacts were the longtime fighters Pat Bodzianowski and Sonny Sykes, who told King that they tied up kittens in burlap sacks and allowed their dogs to attack them and that they punished losing dogs with ice picks to the chest. According to Jack Kelly, who knew both men, "Mr. King asked them so many foolish questions about the dogs that Pat and Sonny decided to have some fun with him. They regaled him with blood curdling stories about the dogs, stories that both Pat and Sonny knew were too ridiculous to be believed.""

"If Bodzianowski and Sykes intended to shock King with their callous bravado, they did an excellent job of it. In turn, they shocked millions of American newspaper readers, who didn't need much convincing that fighters were sadists who had to be stopped. Animal activists then repeated their worst fears as though they were facts. Building on a theme of frenzy, Wright told a reporter for the Chicago Tribune that a fighting pit bull "kills one hundred dogs and cats during training." Frank McMahon, then director of field services and investigations for HSUS, said that each dog was trained on "kittens or smaller dogs, and it's not uncommon for the animals to be splashed with blood to excite their instincts to attack and kill." Roger Caras, also from HSUS, repeated this terrifying detail on the Today show. Nowhere in the underground fighting literature, in which training regimes are painstakingly detailed, are these practices ever mentioned."

"Despite its shaky foundations in reality, the story about "live bait" morphed into one of the most notorious urban legends about pit bulls, the legend of the "bait dog". Chris Schindler, the current head of animal-fighting investigations for HSUS - who oversees eighty-plus investigations a year - explained to me that this idea is mostly a myth. If 'bait dogs' exist today, he said, it is only because media outlets have repeatedly published incorrect and outlandish stories, which then inspired the actions of disturbed individuals – who were not involved in professional dog fighting."

""Fighters want a dog to build confidence, and they want him to get his butt kicked a little bit so that he's going to have to fight through that," Schindler told me. "They don't want to let him hurt some dog that couldn't really properly fight back. That doesn't teach the dog anything." The dogs train up, the same way human boxers spar with experienced trainers, not the other way around. Terry Mills, director of the ASPCA's Blood Sports Field Investigations and Response Team, who attended more than eighty dogfights when he posed as a professional dog fighter for eighteen months of undercover work that resulted in the arrests of 103 people in eight states, also denied that 'bait dogs' were ever used."

"Schindler and his colleague Janettte Reever said that if there was one term that they wished both activists and the media would stop using, it's 'bait dog'. It divides the world of pit bulls into aggressors and victims, which is both inaccurate and untrue. Most are neither. Assumptions made about an animal's history can also determine how it is housed and handled and whether or not it is given a chance at adoption. Certain shelters will not allow dogs with scars to be adopted, for example, based on the mistaken assumption that all scars come from fighting. Some dogs assumed to be 'bait dogs' may also be suffering from other types of severe injuries that require much different treatment. (In Chicago, I encountered a suspected 'bait dog' that had in fact been hit by a car. Had a medical team not recognized this and attended to his internal bleeding, he likely would have died.) The focus on 'bait dogs' originally functioned as a well-intended means of generating sympathy for victims of cruelty, but it now perpetuates the stereotype that all pit bulls come from fighting backgrounds, when in reality only a tiny fraction of them do."

"Despite being able to find out more about the world than at any other point in human history, the American media have unfortunately let down their guard when it comes to scientific skepticism."

"Once misinformation takes hold, actual facts can do very little to dislodge a false belief."

"This is the social and psychological vortex that pit bulls were sucked into. The definition of 'pit bull' continually expanded to include more dogs, and the nonsensical claims in the media were never borne out by science, but no amount of evidence could dislodge the emotionally gripping idea that underneath there was just something unnatural about these dogs, that somehow the otherwise virtuous American dog population had been tainted by impure pit bull blood. The dogs were then linked to a much-feared social group, which would sweep them into a human drama of proxy and projection. The eradication of these animals then became, for some, a moral imperative."

"While activists took sides and launched verbal missiles at each other in the press, while shelters and animal controls fretted over the so-called pit bull problem, while breeders debated what counted as a pit bull and whether or not pit bulls have "breed traits," all the people in this line (referring to 100s of Philadelphia residents waiting upwards of five hours in the cold to get their dogs rabies shots or sign up for spay/neuter) had been peacefully living their lives with their companions (of all breeds, including pit bulls), oblivious to the madness going on around them. It could not have been more clear to me that what I had gleaned hints of all along was in fact true: The dogs moved out of the darkness a hundred years ago. We are the ones who are stuck there.

If I felt any tightness in my chest that day, it arose when I looked at all the children. They were as yet completely unaware of the battles raging over pit bulls in boardrooms, courtrooms, and city halls. They took such luminous pride in their pets, and clung to them as though hanging on for dear life. Would they eventually be told by people who did not know them that there was something ugly and flawed and the dogs they grew up with – dogs they loved, the dogs that made them feel safe? Would they be scrutinized as possible criminals and treated with suspicion? I did not want that for them. I did not want that for anybody."

We're afraid we have some very sad news to share with our SPBR/PCPF family. 💔

Our sweet Wilma passed away this past Friday, and our hearts are broken.

As far as we knew, Wilma wasn't sick. There were no obvious signs that anything was wrong, no injuries or other issues that might explain what happened. All we can do is wonder if perhaps her little heart simply gave out. Not knowing makes losing her even harder. 😢

No matter how long we get to love them, it never feels like enough. We know our Phat Farm family and our Adopt-a-Bulls can't stay with us forever, but knowing that doesn't make saying goodbye any easier. Every single one of them leaves a space in our hearts that can't be filled by another.

Rest easy, sweet Wilma. We hope you knew how loved you were. You were part of our family, and you always will be. Run free, precious girl. Until we meet again. 💔🐾

Hi. I’m Lil Toot. 👋
I’m gorgeous, I’m sweet, and I’m currently accepting applications for a very patient human.

I’m a little shy and reserved, so I’m not exactly the girl who’s going to burst into the room yelling, “HEY EVERYBODY! LOOK AT ME!” 😂 I prefer to observe first, overthink it a little, and then decide if you’re worthy of my attention.

Good news: I LOVE other dogs, and I’m pretty sure I’d thrive with someone willing to cater to my every need while I slowly realize that life is actually pretty awesome. 🥹

Give me patience, snacks, love, and a safe place to decompress, and I just might surprise you with the silly, sweet girl hiding underneath all that shyness.

Can’t adopt Lil Toot? A monthly sponsorship or one-time donation helps us spoil her while she waits for her person. ❤️ https://www.facebook.com/donate/1713554853038170/

Interested in this beautiful dark-brindle introvert? Give us a shout! 🐾

🩺❤️ NOVEMBER 9 IS VET DAY AT SHAW PBR! ❤️🩺
Our favorite vet is coming on-site to give our Adopt-a-Bulls their annual checkups — including heartworm tests, weights, exams, vaccines, and their routine DHLPPv, Bordetella & Bravecto.

With a whole pack of dogs, that’s a BIG medical bill! 🐾

We’ve included several ways to help in the images. Pick one, pick a few, or help however you can — then send your donation our way and help us get this November vet bill covered! ❤️

Every donation puts us one step closer to getting every pup seen, tested, vaccinated, and protected. 🩺🐾

They’re here for good, and their medical care is too.

🎃 Will you help us make sure they’re covered? Donate today! ❤️
https://www.facebook.com/donate/1413152331007846/

O’Malley got himself all wrapped up for Halloween and decided it was time to have a little fun! 🧻😂 For today’s Zip It Sunday, we want you to take the numbers in your ZIP code, add them together, and donate that amount to Shaw PBR. For example, 39702 = 3+9+7+0+2 = $21.

Then tell us your ZIP code in the comments so we can see just how many ghouls are playing along! 👻 If you can’t donate this time, no worries — drop your ZIP anyway and play along with us! 🎃🐾

Let’s see how many ZIP codes we can spook up! 🧡
https://www.facebook.com/donate/2463979657427976/

Where My Ghouls At?! 👻

🎃👻 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 — DONATE THE DATE! 👻🎃

Let’s get SHEET-FACED! 😂🎃 We’re asking our friends to donate $10 for the 10th to help with the daily care of our Adopt-a-Boos.

So grab your broom, your favorite spooky spirit, and toss $10 our way for October 10th! 🧡🐾 https://www.facebook.com/donate/2463979657427976/

$10 for 10/10 — because helping dogs is always a treat, never a trick! 👻❤️