The long-term impact of Hurricane Katrina for pit bulls - Part 4

A few months ago marked the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on New Orleans and much of the rest of the Gulf Coast. At the time, I shared my trip journal from 10 years ago detailing our experience volunteering for 5 days in the wake of the Hurricane, I shared the memories that have stayed with me most, and the long term impact of Hurricane Katrina of the PETS Act -- which recognized pets as part of the family in evacuation scenarios.

And while there has of course been a substantial long-term impact following Hurricane Katrina for the families impacted by the storm, and for the communities that continue to rebuild, there is another long term impact for animals that has gone virtually unnoticed-- and that's the impact on pit bull-like dogs in this country.

But to understand the impact, we need to take a little trip back -- to what feels like forever ago.

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In 2005, sheltering looked much different than it does today -- at least in many places. No kill, as a movement, was pretty new and the impact was not felt in most places and many/most public shelters were very high kill. Many also had strong prejudices against certain types of dogs.

I'll use Kansas City as an example -- because I'm most familiar with the situation -- but also because its story is pretty typical of the situation in 2005. 

In Kansas City, the shelter was high-kill -- with roughly 65% of the animals being killed in the shelter each year. The shelter's policy for pit bull-like dogs was that if they came to the shelter, they would return them to owners and there was one pit bull rescue group in town that was allowed to pull pit bulls from the shelter. The rest were killed and never given a chance for adoption.

These polices, combined with a lot of negative media attention led to a simple reality - -unless you were a volunteer for the pit bull rescue group in our community, or owned a pit bull, you had little to no exposure to them. The lack of exposure led a LOT of people to believe only what they heard, or read about pit bulls because they had no other basis for their opinion. Which meant, that even in the animal welfare community, pit bulls didn't necessarily have a great reputation. Indeed, many of the major national groups at the time had policy papers that were disparaging against pit bulls. 

They had a bad rap -- even among many in animal welfare.  Which made the group of people who knew that pit bulls were indeed good dogs fairly small. 

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In the days following Hurricane Katrina, we began to get word of all the animals that needed help in the Gulf Coast region. Our friend got a text from a friend of hers that said "almost all the dogs are pit bulls, and a lot of people here are afraid to work with them."  Well, I definitely wouldn't have considered myself an expert on pit bulls - but I wasn't scared of them. And that was motivation we needed to head to Gonzales, LA to help at the Lamar Dixon staging camp. 

In the days that followed, our experience was like that of many others. We worked with the dogs. And, a significant majority of the dogs were pit bull-like dogs. And if you were helping at Lamar Dixon, or many of the other staging sites, you were helping with pit bulls. If you were afraid to work with pit bulls you weren't going to be a lot of help.

And the end result was that hundreds, maybe thousands of volunteers from around the country, many of whom had had very little interaction with pit bulls in their years of working in animal welfare, began working with the dogs for the first time. I've seen a lot of comments that verify that this was, indeed, their experience.

And nothing creates a more positive image of pit bulls than working with the dogs. Because in spite of this being a challenging situation for the dogs and the people, the dogs were....amazing. 

As the months that followed, these volunteers went back to their communities and began talking about their experiences -- and talking about the dogs. In addition to the stories, many iconic photoes of the historic rescue efforts from the Gulf Coast were published (some of them are posted in this blog post) and a huge number these pictures included pit bull-like dogs.

The experience of working with the dogs, the stories about the rescue efforts,and the images started to change the attitudes of people WITHIN animal welfare about pit bulls. And this change in attitudes among animal welfare groups led to some significant changes in the years that followed. 

Two years later, in an historic case, a judge allowed the dogs seized from Mike Vick's dog fighting operation the opportunity to be evaluated and adopted out. While this was through a lot of work by some key folks working directly with authorities in this case, I don't think that it's any coincidence that for the first time ever dogs from a fighting case were allowed to live when now, it wasn't just "pit bull people" fighting for the dogs, it was the entire animal welfare community.

It was the animal welfare community again that put HSUS on blast after HSUS supported the killing of 127 pit bulls that were seized from a potential dog fighting ring in Wilkes County, NC in 2009 -- and the animal welfare community began to bring some of the national animal welfare groups along with them on their improved attitudes about pit bulls. 

Best Friends Animal Society was relatively quiet on the topic of pit bulls prior to Katrina. But following their experience at their own temporary shelter in Tylertown, they took an active role in helping many of the dogs from the Vick case and have become the most active national organization in affecting policy toward pit bulls in the years since.

In the time that has followed, the attitudes have continued to improve and progress is being made for pit bulls. Long-time anti-pit bull people were forced out of high-profile positions because of their insistence on killing the dogs. Ohio, which was the only state to have state-wide breed-specific laws, repealed it's breed-specific law. 19 states now prohibit breed-discrimination from government entities.

And now, many, many communities, like here in Kansas City, shelters have not only begun giving pit bulls a chance to be adopted, but adopters, and volunteers are falling in love with the dogs -- because, the dogs are....amazing.  

And it's with that experience with the dogs that more lives and attitudes will continue to change....for the better.

 

Comments

[pit bull friend]

Beautifully said, Brent! I've thought about this many a time. The week I spent at the Best Friends camp at Tylertown changed my life. It also changed the life of the pit mix I brought back with me, who is sleeping on his bed right next to me. I am grateful to have had the chance to get to know & love pits.

[Margo Gresham]

My first experience with Pit Bulls was in the aftermath of Katrina when I spent four months rescuing in Louisiana. I am admittedly a "crazy cat lady" but I love all animals and will help any animal in need. In Louisiana nearly every dog was at least part Pit. During my time in Louisiana I handled hundreds of these dogs without a problem. I discovered that most had the sweetest temperament and just wanted to be loved. The only dog bite I received during my time there was from a Min Pin. Luckily he was short enough that his teeth only made it into my boot and not my leg. So yes, because of Katrina I became a Pit Bull lover and advocate of the breed.

[Brent]

Great story Margo -- and I think a fairly common one. And I think a lot of minds got changed for the better in the months that followed Katrina.

PB Friend -- thank you as well. I'm glad you all got to change either others' lives together.

[Tanya]

In 1989 I graduated from an accredited Vet Tech school in Wisconsin. I never had dogs growing up and knew very little about dogs in general Which, in the long run served me well, as I was fortunate enough to work for a private practice Veterinarian who taught me how to read dog language. I didn't start with a preconceived notion that I knew about dogs because I owned them "all my life". I remember being nervous about someday having to work with the "vicious" Doberman. This, was due to media and how they were often portrayed as guard dogs. The first doberman I encountered, quickly put those fears to rest. In 1992, I went to work for a high kill county shelter. When I left in 1995, we were working with rescues etc to bring those numbers down. This is where I met my first Pit Bull type dog. I really had no idea what a pit bull type dog was, though when I first saw him, I immediately thought of Petey, even though this one was brindled. My kennel manager feared if we identified the dog as a Pit Bull, he wouldn't have a chance. Which completely puzzled me; what did it matter? He was a complete sweetheart, loved everyone,including other animals. People would fear him because of their use in illegal fight rings. A fear, which had proven to be unfounded. This dog showed no signs of being used in such a manner. He was identified as a staffy. During my three years there, from 1992 to 1995 we likely had roughly 200 pit bull type dogs pass through the doors. I wish I could tell you how many were adopted, I simply don't have that stat. But I can tell you this, in my three years at this shelter and 6 years in private practice, I have never been threatened by a pit bull type dog. The first time I met a pit bull, stands out in my mind, as way back then they were irrationally feared. I now own two, both rescues and I also advocate for the breed type. Red, my red nose (kind of looks like the one in the pic, sand the white stripe) was the center of BSL in Muscoda, WI. His previous owner and I went before the village board and was successful in getting the law overturned. Due to unforseen circumstances, the young man had to move back with his parents, due to finances. As a result I took Red, planning to only foster him, now a year and a half later he is a permanent family member. :)

[Alexis M.]

I'm late to the discussion- but started looking at this because when I was looking at the Katrina stories (prompted by the recent Louisiana floods), I noticed that almost all the dogs left behind were pits. I have my own (truly my best friend and my children's nanny- herself rescued from a fighting ring) and was thinking it's because pits are disposable dogs to many people who own them just to look tough, or for amusement.

[Brent]

Thanks Alexis for reading. I think it would be inaccurate to think that most people who own pit bulls view them as disposable. I think most love them, but often because of restrictions (rental housing, insurance, community) about owning them, they often aren't left with a lot of options for their pets -- particularly if limited income/resources limits the ability to move easily.