By MICHELE CALICCHIO
Standing on his hind legs at around five feet, the large all majorly black pit bull mix with white patches on his chest and neck stood against the gate of his cage waiting to be let out. He seemed to stare at all the passing employees with his big brown eyes, tongue out, tail wagging, and anxious to go outside. Sport is one of the 2,500 animals that the Hi-Tor Animal Care Center takes in each year.
August 15 marks Sport’s third year of residency at the Hi-Tor Animal Care Center, a shelter located in Pomona, NY. The labrador/pit bull mix was brought in by a family after they found him tied up to the pole of a fence in a vacated area surrounded by just trees in Piedmont.
The shelter was unaware how long or why the young pup was left there but Kelly Daveids, an employee at the shelter made it clear that there will always be room for him at the shelter until he gets adopted.
The aisle at Hi-Tor Animal Care Center was lined with kennels on both sides, each dog attentive and running up to the gate as you walked by, but there was something a little more to Sport.
He was the only one to jump onto his gate with a wagging nub of a tail when Daveids tapped the wall next to his kennel. He was full of energy and excitement to go outside and play; that being kept in a kennel all day drives him crazy. Sport would bite his leash.
“It’s really sad watching people come everyday but Sport never leaves,” said Daveids, 23 who has been working at the shelter for three years. “It breaks my heart that he’s such a great dog and he just gets overlooked for dogs who are more well trained.”
At the Pomona shelter, Daveids continued to explain how several people have come in to look and play with Sport but in the end none of them ever end up adopting him. Sport is a dog that needs the right owner and can’t be taken by just anyone, she said. He was never trained he can’t be with another dog.
The pit/lab mix is an animal that needs a strong owner, someone who will give him the time and attention that he needs which is clearly something that his first owners couldn’t do, Daveids said.It’s assumed the first owners left Sport tied to fence because they didn’t know how to properly handle the dog or what to do with him. Luckily he was found and brought to Hi-Tor where he can be properly cared for.
Other Pitbulls For Adoption
Rocco, a terrier/pit bull mix is going on has been at the shelter for two years as of September. His owners surrendered him to the shelter after their house burned down in the fire along with their other dog. The owners’ new place had a no pet policy, so the two were put up for adoption and the other dog was adopted almost immediately.
Another pup surrendered to the shelter is Alice, a pitbull terrier mix was sent there due to irresponsible breeding practices. Alice was a victim of “backyard breeding” she wasn’t taken proper care of because her breeders little knew about her breed, genetics, and how to maintain her health due to the several amounts of different dogs they bread.
Alice is a special dog that needs to be adopted by a family that is willing to work with her. This means having the time to give her the proper attention she needs, like medical attention due to the fact that she is at high risk for a genetic disease due to inbreeding.
Alice has been trained by a special trainer who works with Cesar Millan; he evaluated her and saw how wonderful she truly is and that she would need a dedicated family to follow through with her intense consistent daily training regimen.
Reasons To Adopt
Most people fail to realize by adopting an animal you are actually saving a life. Hi-Tor doesn’t euthanize animals but most shelters do due to the limited space they offer. Animals that aren’t looked at or adopted are the first to get euthanized, which could be reduced dramatically if more people were to adopt instead of purchasing them. Not only are you saving the animals life you adopt, but you’re saving the other animal that will be put in the shelter in his or her place.
When you adopt you’re getting a healthy pet. Most shelters examine and give vaccinations to animals upon arrival, additionally they get spayed or neutered. Animals are also screened for precise tendencies and behaviors to make sure the animal goes to a family that can properly provide for its needs.
Adopting is significantly cheaper then going to a pet store or other online sources. Also, any animal from a shelter is already vaccinated, spayed, and neutered as an animal from a pet store is not.
Overall adopting just makes you feel better overall. Nobody puts a smile on your face like a pet can, they love you unconditionally, and have been shown to be beneficial emotionally, physically, and psychologically. Caring for a pet can also provide a sense of fulfillment, purpose, and make one feel less lonely. Pets have also been proven to lower one’s cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
By adopting you are also not supporting puppy mills because you aren’t going to a puppy store. Puppy mills are the factory production of puppies. Most animals raised in them get improper medical care, live in poor conditions, and the animal giving birth is kept in a cage and being bred multiple times until it eventually dies.
“I used to work at a dog store called, American Puppies and the way the dogs were treated was just inhumane,” said Alexa Calicchio, a former puppy store employee. “The dogs came on these large trucks in tiny cages, then we would put six of them in a small cage and have untrained teenage girls clipping their nails and they would bleed.”
Alexa Hartmann and her family of Middletown adopted Will, a labrador hound mix from the Monmouth County SPCA Shelter and have never felt so complete. Will was found roaming the streets after Hurricane Sandy and brought to the shelter shortly after.
After owning Will for two years Hartmann admitted that it has been a lot of work to house train him but every second was worth it. At first he wasn’t obedient and didn’t listen well, but after getting used to the family he began to behave better.
“There’s something about coming home and knowing he is waiting for me at the door that just makes me so happy,” Hartmann said. “Adopting him was one of the best decisions I think we have ever made, we all love him and in a way he brings us closer together because we all do activities with him as a family.”
Bad Rep For Pits
During the 1980’s over thirty communities were considering bans on pit bulls due to the return of illegal dog fighting, and the fact that they were used as guard dogs for most drug dealers. In 1987 while guarding a large amount of cannabis a pit mauled and killed a two-and-a-half-year-old-boy.
This bread is misconceived for being an all around bad dog. They’re said to be overly aggressive and more damaging than any other breed. Pits are also believed to not be saved from their old way, that they will always behave badly, and once they’re bad that there is no coming back.
Not once did people stop to think maybe it’s the people raising them and not the dog itself. Look at Michael Vick who had over 50 pits fighting in an illegal underground ring for money, these dogs weren’t bred bad they were raised to fight and kill.
“Just how a kid acts depends on his childhood and how he was raised, a dog acts like how he was raised,” Caitlin Foley, 21 of Middletown. “Pit bulls aren’t vicious animals, it’s their owners that are the vicious ones. If you raise a dog to be an attack dog, that’s how he’s gonna be because that’s all he’ll ever know. It just so happens that pits are raised as these fighting and attack dogs and it’s not fair to them that their breed has such a horrible reputation.”
Sport at Hi-Tor isn’t a bad dog at all, what he needs is just guidance. With the proper owner who can raise him right and dedicate their time to him he has the potential to be a loving, caring, and great dog. He wasn’t born a vicious monster, just a dog who’s owners didn’t know how to handle him.
Not every animal owner is right for a pit and that’s why Hi-Tor carefully looks over the paperwork of those who want to adopt to make sure the dog is the right dog for them. So if you know anyone who is right or you yourself think you could be Sport’s new parent fill out an application.
“My cousin has a pit bull, Ranger who I often dog sit and consider him my own at this point,” Foley added. “Ranger is the absolute sweetest and most gentle dog I have ever encountered in my life because that is how he was raised. Pit bulls aside, how many dogs do you know that are so well behaved they can cuddle with a two month and a 22 month child…Ranger always does.”
[SOUNDSLIDES: View slideshow here of foster dogs]
These foster dogs are available through Redemption Rescues, for more information visit redemptionrescues.org