In early 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee a pit bull-boxer mix by the name of Prada had gotten out of her yard and started wandering the neighborhood. She got into a neighbor’s yard and got in a fight with a German shepherd. The German shepherd’s owner tried to break up the fight and got bit in the hand by the German shepherd. Still, according to the Nashville City Paper, Prada was impounded and deemed a “vicious dog,” even though the court could not determine Prada to be the aggressor in that incident. The German shepherd had a 10-day quarantine sentence but Prada was held for 14 months while the case dragged on. The three options the judge had available under city law was to release the dog to the owner under the condition that it build an an “enclosure to adequately confine said vicious dog,” microchip the dog to track it’s location or to have the dog “be destroyed in a humane manner.”

[pullquote_right]A Merced County Animal Shelter receptionist says, “we have a hard time adopting out pit bulls. The sad thing is they happen to be the first ones we put down due to overpopulation.” [/pullquote_right]

Apparently since Prada was known to escape from her kennels, the judge said he could only rule for the third and most drastic option. In a lucky turn, the attorney representing Prada and her owner was able to argue that city law did not allow for a fair treatment of Prada. When the case was finally over, Villalobos Rescue Center, located in New Orleans, agreed to hold Prada at there kennels for the rest of her life and was allowed to do so under conditions that Prada never be available for adoption. Since she has been at Villalobos, Prada has reportedly not been aggressive towards other animals. If that case doesn’t show the city of Nashville discriminating against Prada for being a pit bull, I don’t know what will.

A Merced County Animal Shelter receptionist says, “we have a hard time adopting out pit bulls. The sad thing is they happen to be the first ones we put down due to overpopulation.” Often, people are worried about adopting pits because of fear of being bitten. In actuality, according to the American Temperament Test Society, there are four times as many Rottweiler’s, twice times as many German shepherds and three times as many chows than pit bulls involved in fatal attacks based on population percentage.

As with any breed of dog you may encounter a pit with psychological aggression that cannot be trained out of the dog. Bad breeding is usually the cause of this. On average, a female pit can have about 10-14 pups a litter and pits go into heat every six months. So imagine how many pups she could have with in the time period of a few years. Then imagine how many of those pits could end up in the animal shelters. Then think about how many of them will ever make it out. So please spay and neuter your animals.

Remember discrimination and stereotyping, no matter if its in humans or dogs, is always wrong.

Tags: animal abuse, family, pitbulls, spotlight