Pit bulls, and the many different square faced breeds that make up this category of dog, are often given a bad rap. Montreal famously introduced a pit bull ban last year, and they are far from being the only municipality to wrongly discriminate against the breed.Thankfully, some states are making strides to try and erase this harmful stereotype. A new program has been put into place in various towns in New York, Georgia, Washington and Texas, to allow pit bulls to be adopted from shelters, so that they can become police dogs and save them from euthanasia. Many pit bulls go un-adopted due to these negative prejudices.
Source: K9 Ruby
Purebred German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois cost cities thousands of dollars, but adopting costs little to nothing, especially since many of the costs are being covered by Animal Farm Foundation, which set up a sponsorship for training.The group Protect Pit bulls from Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) posted on Facebook:
Police departments are finally getting it. Instead of spending $10,000 to $15,000 for a trained Belgian or GSD, they are now taking pit bulls from shelters and training them, and they are proving themselves to be amazing police and military K9s.
Source: K9 Libby
Eleven pits have been successfully placed as police dogs since the program started two years ago. The canines are trained to detect narcotics, explosives, arson, and missing persons.
Source: Barlette Texas PD/K9 Loll
The dogs are being taken from the Austin Pets Alive!shelter and are being trained by Universal K9. Brad Croft, founder at Universal K9, explained in a blog post:
Any dog that has the drive, confidence, and desire to work can do it. Breed does not dictate a dog’s ability to work.
Source: K9 Ruby
Many of these homeless pits, turned police dogs, have developed thousands of social media followers thanks to their incredible work.Hopefully, seeing these dogs in positions of justice will slowly begin to change the minds of those who believe that pit bulls are only mean and aggressive. The key factor is their training. Pit bulls are an especially loyal and loving breed, which bad owners can take advantage of.
H/t: Independence UK
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