This white and brindle girl came to us from an owner who didn’t have her best interests in mind. Sweets is a nine year old female pit bull who looks like she’s had a rough life. We at the shelter think her time spent at the shelter have been the happiest days of her life so far.

Sweets loves to curl up and sleep on a nice warm blanket each day. The softer and cushier the blanket, the happier she is! Despite her rough first nine years, Sweets hasn’t let it affect her personality. How do you think she got the name “Sweets?!”

Sweets would be a great dog for an older person. Within the 40 to 45lb. range, she’s on the small side of medium. Sweets doesn’t require a lot of exercise and walks very well on leash. She’d also do best as the only pet in the house. At the age of nine, she doesn’t tolerate the antics of younger animals anymore.

Please consider making the last years of Sweets life a great one. After all she’s been through, she deserves it.

Sweetsis also a part of our Senior for Seniors program. If anyone over the age of 63 decides to adopt her, the adoption fee will be discounted.

Sweets has begun working with the B.A.D. Dogs volunteers and trainer and has started making improvements already, not that she’s not well mannered to begin with! Sweets will be working on tolerance of other dogs so she can be an ambassador for the breed when she’s on the town, as well as general house manners and some fun, neat things!

The article includes profiles and interviews with several pit bull advocacy organizations - INCLUDING B.A.D. DOGS! - on their work to change the current perception of pit bulls and preventing the spread of breed specific legislation. B.A.D. Dogs is honored to be included in an article with the likes of our friends Mary Harwelik and her Realpitbull.com website and Jyo O’Hare and The Unexpected Pit Bull Calendar, as well as Casa del Toro and For Pits Sake.

There’s even a picture of our volunteer Carol’s pooch dressed up like superman!

We’re happy to announce that Love Crush has found his forever home and it took no time at all!  Love Crush - now renamed Homer (and isn’t that perfect?) - has found a wonderful place to call home with Jason Windawi and Joe Davidson of Jersey City. In a quick update Jason wrote, “He’s a complete gentleman and we could not be happier to have him here.”

We look forward to update pictures!

This impressive looking 3 year old pit bull is the poster child for pit bulls. With scars covering his big fat head, he’s clearly had a rough go at life. Most people are a little intimidated upon first glance, but the moment Love sits politely in front of them and plants his noggin in their lap for some petting, well, those feelings disappear.

Love Crush craves human contact and tries to get as close to the people around him as possible. He can be seen in one of his photos doing what he loves best - crawling into a humans lap for love and affection! “LC” doesn’t realize he’s too big to be a lap dog! Love Crush isn’t a Material Dog, but he’s no fool. After what he’s been through, he’d also love to live in the lap of luxury!

LC doesn’t seem to mind other dogs.However because of what’s likely happened in his past, we’d only consider placing him in a multi-dog household if the potential adopters had extensive experience with pit bulls and their behaviors. Our preference is a single dog household.

LC has been nominated to be the new B.A.D. (Bullies are Deserving Dogs) Dog. Volunteers & staff members will give him extra obedience training & socialization to help him find that perfect home. Adopters will receive all the tools necessary to help make this successful.

 For more info on the Unexpected Pit Bull Calendar, visit http://www.theunexpectedpitbull.com/.

Clark so impressed everyone with his potential and outstanding personality, that he was the natural choice to be the next B.A.D. Dog after Caramel was adopted.

Around 7 months old, Clark is just a babe. He came to the shelter with a bad case of mange and looked a bit worse for the wear. Quickly started on medication, Clark responded immediately and blossomed into a stunning example of his breed. Like many puppies, he does have things to work on - namely his mouthiness. Clark hasn’t learned yet that using his mouth on anything but toys is not appropriate. The dedicated B.A.D. Dogs volunteers have been working day in and out with him however and we’ve seen improvement already.

Clark has taken tremendous strides since becoming a part of the program. Learning command after command, he has become a favorite with volunteers and staff alike and even won over pit bull advocate Mary Harwelik of www.realpitbull.com. Clark will continue to progress in the program until we can find his forever home.

We were delighted to recieve a link to his new blog! It’s always heartwarming to find out the latest on some of our favorite residents and we thought you’d enjoy keeping up on such a happy ending for a wonderful dog!

Visit Beast/Otis’s blog at www.otisandbuka.com.

Congratulations and good luck Caramel!

Saved from Michael Vick’s property, pit bulls now in loving homes

Eric Risberg / AP At her home in the San Francisco Bay Area, Leslie Nuccio holds Hector, a pit bull that was seized from Michael Vick’s property.

By Cheryl Wittenauer

Associated Press Writer

updated 1:58 p.m. ET, Sun., Jan. 27, 2008

His back resting comfortably against her chest, Hector nestles his massive canine head into Leslie Nuccio’s shoulder, high-fiving pit bull paws against human hands.

The big dog — 52 pounds — is social, people-focused, happy now, it seems, wearing a rhinestone collar in his new home in sunny California.

But as Hector sits up, deep scars stand out on his chest, and his eyes are imploring.

“I wish he could let us know what happened to him,” says Nuccio, the big tan dog’s foster mother.

Hector ought to be dead, she knows — killed in one of his staged fights, or executed for not being “game” enough, not winning, or euthanized by those who see pit bulls seized in busts as “kennel trash,” unsuited to any kind of normal life.

 

Instead, Hector is learning how to be a pet.

After the hell of a fighting ring, he has reached a heaven of sorts: saved by a series of unlikely breaks, transported thousands of miles, along with other dogs rescued with him, by devoted strangers, and now nurtured by Nuccio, her roommate, Danielle White, and their three other dogs.

The animals barrel around the house, with 4-year-old Hector leading the puppy-like antics — stealth underwear grabs from the laundry basket, sprints across the living room, food heists from the coffee table — until it’s “love time” and he decelerates and engulfs the women in a hug.

Nuccio wishes he could let her know all that happened.

But what she does know is this: Hector has come such a long way since he was trapped in the horrors of Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels.

Inside Vick’s dogfighting operation
Authorities descending last year on 1915 Moonlight Road in Smithfield, Va., found where Vick, the former NFL quarterback, and others staged pit bull fights in covered sheds, tested the animals’ fighting prowess and destroyed and disposed of dogs that weren’t good fighters.

Vick is serving a 23-month federal sentence after admitting that he bankrolled the dogfighting operation and helped kill six to eight dogs. Three co-defendants Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor also pleaded guilty and were sentenced, and the four now face state animal cruelty charges. Oscar Allen, who sold a champion pit bull to Vick’s dogfighting operation, was sentenced Friday on a federal dogfighting charge.

Officers who carried out the raid found dogs, some injured and scarred, chained to buried car axles. Forensic experts discovered remains of dogs that had been shot with a .22 caliber pistol, electrocuted, drowned, hanged or slammed to the ground for lacking a desire to fight.

A bewildered Hector and more than 50 other American Pit Bull Terriers or pit bull mixes were gathered up. So were “parting sticks” used to open fighting dogs’ mouths, treadmills to condition them, and a “rape stand” used to restrain female dogs that did not submit willingly to breeding.

The dogs, held as evidence in the criminal prosecutions, were taken to a half dozen city and county pounds and shelters in Virginia.

Hector was bunked in the Hanover pound in a cage below a dog named Uba who was smaller and more clearly showing anxiety.

Uba flattened on all fours when Tim Racer, an evaluator on a team assembled by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, arrived at his cage.

“Are you going to kill me now?” was the message another evaluator, Donna Reynolds, read in Uba’s eyes.

The black-and-white dog tried to wriggle away once out of the cage, but he came around after a while. He wagged his tail when the team showed him a 4-foot doll, to test his response to children. He spun around and got into a play position when they brought out a dog.

“This is the big secret. Most of them were dog-tolerant to dog-social. It was completely opposite of what we were led to believe,” Reynolds said.

How much to trust the capacity of fighting dogs to have a new life as pets or working dogs in law enforcement or therapy settings is an issue that has divided animal advocates; some believe most such animals should be put down as a precaution, while others say they must be evaluated individually. One dog seized at Bad Newz was euthanized as too aggressive, but the others, four dozen plus in all, have had different fates.

Nearly half have been sent to a Utah sanctuary, Best Friends Animal Society, where handlers will work with them. None showed human aggression and many have potential for adoption someday. Others, evaluated as being immediate candidates for foster care and eventual adoption, went to several other groups.

Among the latter was Hector.

A team of animal welfare experts got things rolling last July when federal authorities sought ownership of the seized dogs. The result, they say, was groundbreaking.

The Oakland, Calif.-based pit bull rescue and education group Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit bulls, or BAD RAP, which had done similar rescues from fighting busts in California, asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gill for permission to evaluate and rescue as many of the dogs as possible, with the hope of eventually placing them in adoptive homes.

“Much to our amazement, he said yes,” said Reynolds, who heads BAD RAP. “This doesn’t happen. People don’t say yes to pit bulls.”

 Find the rest of the article and more information on the rescued Vick dogs here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22844052/?GT1=10755

 

 

Caramel and her brother Fudge were both slated to become the newest B.A.D. Dogs. Fudge however, was adopted before he could begin the program and now Caramel has the distinct pleasure all to herself.

Caramel was taken from an abandoned building where she was being kept. At only 11 months old, Caramel is maturing into a fine adult. Mary Harwelik of www.realpitbull.com described her as “completely deferential” to people. She is a complete mush with people and a very fast learner. Like most pit bulls, Caramel is high energy and enjoys playing with toys.

Caramel is slightly possessive over her food, but gladly trades for other treats - a good sign that the issue will be easily solved through the work of our volunteers. Showing her maturity, Caramel is also selective about which dogs she gets along with, so she must either be placed in a home with a compatible male or as a single dog.

Check back for more updates on Caramel’s progress within the program.