Pit bulls are crowding the county's animal shelter

I can't agree with this article regarding 'Pit bulls are naturally aggressive towards other dogs.' It's statements like this that make the general pubic unfamiliar with the breeds fear them. How is it that there are plenty of multi-dog families with no problems with dog aggression.

Naturally, dogs that have been rescued from illegal fighting rings are prone to be aggressive to other dogs since they have been taught to fight or die, but with many they need to be desensitized rather than put down.

Just as a person who has been drawn into a Cult and brainwashed, do you kill the person or do you help that individual? There IS help available, but it's an easier solution to just eliminate the problem when it's a dog. These poor dogs have their fate sealed only because they happened into the wrong hands. That does not excuse the fact that their needs are not being met and they are not receiving the help that they need.

I shake my head at some people that take the oath of veterinarian to help and save animals, yet because of breed that oath no longer applies.

This story is published in the Fayetteville Online.

Published on Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Pit bulls are crowding the county's animal shelter
By Andrew BarksdaleStaff writer

Pit bulls are crowding Cumberland County’s only public animal shelter.

At times, more than half of the 70 dog pens at Animal Control are sheltering American pit bull terriers.
Pit bulls are large, strong animals that are naturally aggressive toward other dogs, said Dr. John Lauby, a veterinarian and a member of the local Animal Control Board.

Unlike smaller, more sociable dogs that can be grouped up to three animals per cage, pit bulls must be kept one animal to a pen — in some cases because they are crime evidence, but always because of their aggressiveness.
“It reduces our adoption side,” Animal Control Director Sue Nicholson said. “We are having to be very selective.”

Normally, the shelter devotes 35 pens to dogs that can be adopted and the rest for pit bulls or other strays that are usually euthanized after three days.

In most cases, the pit bulls end up at the shelter after being picked up as strays or seized in dog fighting or animal cruelty cases.

Court cases can take months, and most of the time the dogs are euthanized.

“It’s a huge drain on Animal Control,” Lauby said.

Lauby said pit bulls can be friendly toward people, but the animals are easily provoked to rage. A screaming child or a neighbor’s dog wandering by can set the dogs off.

And because pit bulls are so strong, they can easily kill or injure another animal or person and make headlines.
In 2003, an 88-pound pit bull that Lauby was treating mauled two of his employees at East Fayetteville Veterinary Clinic. They recovered from their injuries.

In 2004, a 3-year-old boy who walked into a neighbor’s yard in Hoke County’s Anderson Creek was attacked and killed by a pit bull.

Eleven of the pit bulls at the shelter have been there since December, when Fayetteville police charged William Jeffrey Almond II with fighting dogs at a house on Andy Street. Nicholson said Almond’s case is pending.

Two of the pit bulls seized in that case were 5-week-old puppies. One died; the other remains at the shelter.

“We have asked for leniency for that one,” Nicholson said. “We could find a good home for it because it has not been subjected to fighting and would be safe around people.”

In another case, animal control officers picked up four emaciated and injured pit bulls in October on Amanda Circle, off Strickland Bridge Road. One was euthanized immediately. Officials determined that another had been stolen, so they returned that animal to the original owner. A judge has yet to hear the case.

Nicholson said the number of pit bulls at the shelter fluctuates from day to day. On Thursday, the shelter had 23 pit bulls — each in a separate cage.

She said the high number of pit bulls has been a problem since she arrived in July. She doesn’t know how many pit bulls are in the county.

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Creative coping

Nicholson said the crowding has forced her to be creative. Five animals in county custody are at temporary foster homes, and she has begun calling veterinary clinics to get help finding homes for some of the shelter’s dogs.

The number of dogs adopted from the shelter has risen in recent months; 234 were adopted in the January-March quarter, compared with 139 in the previous quarter.

Nicholson said she has no problem keeping cats, which require smaller cages and have to be quarantined less often.

The space shortage for dogs at the 28-year-old building has long been a problem. A $4.2 million shelter is under construction and is expected to be finished early next year in the county’s industrial park.

But even the new shelter might not be big enough.

Last week, the county’s Facilities Committee agreed to add 32 dog pens to the new building, at a cost of $58,708. That would bring the total number of dog pens to 96. Half would be reserved for adoptions.
County Engineer Bob Stanger had recommended the extra pens to the committee, he said, because of the pit bull population.

The county commissioners approved the recommendation Monday without comment.

Linda Lewis, chairwoman of the Animal Control Board, said before the meeting that she worries the new building will be full the day it opens.

“They are building this expensive place, and it will start out with a lack of cages,” she said.

Stanger said the building has been designed to accommodate about 40 pens beyond the planned 96 cages.

Staff writer Andrew Barksdale can be reached at barksdalea@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3565.