Marty
07-19-2005, 07:27 PM
United States -- Crouched on her deck, her arms overflowing with dog, Amy Lyon accepts kisses from Fatty and Jake, two round sausages encased in fur.
The 39-year-old Meridian-Kessler businesswoman calls them "Velcro dogs."
"All they want to do is be with you," she said, laughing, as they nudged close. "Whatever we're doing, they're close; they are so totally loving and loyal."
Fatty, 2, and Jake, 7, are pit bulls -- you know, those dogs with the rep as the Caligula of the canine world.
Lyon wants the world to know it's not so. She is showing off her rescued pit bulls Monday in an effort to stamp out the snarling stigma -- and to head off an indictment of her favorite breed.
Anytime an incident takes place involving menacing dogs, or worse, pit bulls get the rap, she said.
A pit bull mix was involved in this weekend's killing of eight birds at the Indianapolis Zoo. Five other dogs also took part. Police killed four mixed-breed dogs, three males and a female, and one dog got away. The male pit bull mix was captured.
Lyon was distressed, but not surprised, at media reports that focused on the pit bull. That's a theme she has observed -- a genuine bias, she said.
"I've had (media) people tell me that they listen to the police scanner, and when they hear the word 'pit bull,' they send a camera out. They don't send a crew when it's a Golden retriever, or a beagle or a Lab. It's very, very discriminatory."
Marion County experiences about 6,000 dog bite incidents a year, but nobody keeps records on the breeds involved.
Lyon does pit bull rescue. Fatty, for example, was left at the 500 race this spring. He's now featured on www.pbrc.net in an effort to find him a good home. Lyon and a few other pit bull fans work with Indianapolis Animal Care & Control and the Humane Society of Indianapolis to save pit bulls from a formidable tag team: bad press and irresponsible pet owners.
Jeff Bennett, head of Animal Care & Control, said the weekend attack had nothing to do with a type of breed.
The problem is not pooches, but people, he said. "At some point there was a human being involved with those dogs' lives. Those dogs were abandoned, let out of a yard or dumped. It is the human being we need to reach to stop this."
Pit bulls are a high-risk dog for mistreatment and dumping -- about one out of three dogs at Animal Care & Control is a pit bull, Bennett said. The Indianapolis Humane Society, which adopts out pit bulls, also gets "lots and lots of pits," Executive Director Martha Boden said.
Why?
Most of us know that pit bulls are the dog associated with a macho image. They fall prey to owners who want them for all the wrong reasons, including illegal dog fighting.
Lyon said she hears the same story over and over. Some "18-year-old punk" acquires a pit bull. Then, for whatever reasons, he has to move and can no longer keep the dog. The dog is set loose or left behind.
That's the problem -- not pit bulls.
The 39-year-old Meridian-Kessler businesswoman calls them "Velcro dogs."
"All they want to do is be with you," she said, laughing, as they nudged close. "Whatever we're doing, they're close; they are so totally loving and loyal."
Fatty, 2, and Jake, 7, are pit bulls -- you know, those dogs with the rep as the Caligula of the canine world.
Lyon wants the world to know it's not so. She is showing off her rescued pit bulls Monday in an effort to stamp out the snarling stigma -- and to head off an indictment of her favorite breed.
Anytime an incident takes place involving menacing dogs, or worse, pit bulls get the rap, she said.
A pit bull mix was involved in this weekend's killing of eight birds at the Indianapolis Zoo. Five other dogs also took part. Police killed four mixed-breed dogs, three males and a female, and one dog got away. The male pit bull mix was captured.
Lyon was distressed, but not surprised, at media reports that focused on the pit bull. That's a theme she has observed -- a genuine bias, she said.
"I've had (media) people tell me that they listen to the police scanner, and when they hear the word 'pit bull,' they send a camera out. They don't send a crew when it's a Golden retriever, or a beagle or a Lab. It's very, very discriminatory."
Marion County experiences about 6,000 dog bite incidents a year, but nobody keeps records on the breeds involved.
Lyon does pit bull rescue. Fatty, for example, was left at the 500 race this spring. He's now featured on www.pbrc.net in an effort to find him a good home. Lyon and a few other pit bull fans work with Indianapolis Animal Care & Control and the Humane Society of Indianapolis to save pit bulls from a formidable tag team: bad press and irresponsible pet owners.
Jeff Bennett, head of Animal Care & Control, said the weekend attack had nothing to do with a type of breed.
The problem is not pooches, but people, he said. "At some point there was a human being involved with those dogs' lives. Those dogs were abandoned, let out of a yard or dumped. It is the human being we need to reach to stop this."
Pit bulls are a high-risk dog for mistreatment and dumping -- about one out of three dogs at Animal Care & Control is a pit bull, Bennett said. The Indianapolis Humane Society, which adopts out pit bulls, also gets "lots and lots of pits," Executive Director Martha Boden said.
Why?
Most of us know that pit bulls are the dog associated with a macho image. They fall prey to owners who want them for all the wrong reasons, including illegal dog fighting.
Lyon said she hears the same story over and over. Some "18-year-old punk" acquires a pit bull. Then, for whatever reasons, he has to move and can no longer keep the dog. The dog is set loose or left behind.
That's the problem -- not pit bulls.