I just got an e-mail from Randy Hillier, MPP for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington. Mr. Hillier is one of the MPPs trying to get Ontario's anti-Pit Bull legislation repealed. He's asking for supporters to submit positive Pit Bull stories to his site, Bring Back the Bulls.
From Mr. Hillier:
Dear friend,
Pit bulls are not only some of our best friends, but they are saviours of some of us as well.
Norton the pit bull from Waterloo loved his “mum”. When his owner was bit by a spider, causing her to go into anaphylactic shock, he frantically woke up his “dad”, saving his “mum”. For his heroism, he was inducted into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame.
Dixie the pit bull of Fayetteville, Georgia loved “her” children. When they were attacked by a deadly and poisonous cottonmouth snake, she made sure that nine year-old Frank Humphries and seven year-old twins Katie and Codi Humphries were safe. She pushed the three children out of the way and got bit by the snake instead. Twice.
Pit bulls might look scary, but the truth of the matter is they save lives. Pit bulls have been known to drag strangers from a burning building, to save their owners from armed attackers, to be hearing dogs. Pit bulls are regularly used by law enforcement to sniff out bombs and narcotics, with some dogs being credited for millions of dollars worth of seizures.
Over the course of my lifetime I have been the proud owner of many different breeds of dogs. I can tell you first hand that Robbie and Titan, my two “Pit Bulls” I currently own, are among the most friendly and well-mannered dogs I have ever owned.
Unfortunately as many of us well know, these are stories that are rarely ever reported by the media. While I have come across many good-news stories myself that involve pit bulls, I am sure there are many more I have yet to discover. As such, I am asking you to help me populate my website www.bringbackthebulls.com with as many positive news stories or personal experiences you have come across.
While I have added a few clippings to the site myself, I would appreciate it if you could submit your own stories and share the website with as many of your friends and family as possible.
Together we can educate others that while the media and the Government are fearful of these great pets, the reality is the current ban unfairly targets and punishes an unofficial breed of dogs rather than the abusive and egregious owners.
Sincerely,
Randy Hillier
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
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I will share this with dog owner friends, all of whom disagree with the ban. As I am not a dog owner and have lived in the city, I have been spooked by bull breeds and rotties being handled by people that should not have them, forget them, these fools should not have a dog at all and at the time of the proposed ban, was all for it. However! I have since been educated by friends, both human and canine and now know that it is the owners that were the problem. This request will go out to everybody I know that foolishly has not discovered I Want A Pound Dog. Yet.
Sean Doherty
I have a pitbull mix which is registered as another breed mix and know many others with the same situation. We are lucky in our area to have vets who r willing to do that. My dog and these other dogs are seriously the biggest babies of the dog world. And i have a rotti who isnt far behind. My dog sleeps in my bed between my boyfriend and myself. He uses my pillow and everything. I have woken up to him laying on top of me, spooning me, curled up between my legs and belly if I am on my side, between my legs, and at this moment has his head resting on my stomach. He follows me whereever i go; to the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and even other houses. Everybody loves him, I am sometimes still shocked at the number of people who love him and stop me on the street regularly to meet him and smother him with love. He listens better than any other dog I know. I find my experiences with other pits are not far off. He even loves his two cats he regularly plays with. I am a student and have had to spend $3000 to fix a broken leg when he was only 4 months old. I would take a bullet for my dog. He is really my best friend.
Thanks for leaving stories here in the comments but please submit them directly to Mr. Hillier's site as well if you haven't already done so.
Hi Randy,
Pit bulls are loyal animals it's all in how the animal is raised. I have a 14 year old male Pitbull/Lab and my brother-in-law had a 8 year old male Pit bull both are the most loving dogs you could have asked for. We adopted one of the dogs from our local shelter and saved his life at the age of 3 months old and in return all this dog has given me and my family back is unconditional love. Ontario should not have a ban on all Pit bulls because that's profiling based on looks. They need to stop the killing of this kind of dog because the root problem is humans. Educate people on all dog breeds and create new laws to protect them all. A whole kind of dog should not be killed off because of some peoples mistakes in the end they are the ones that suffer and live in pain punish people that fight dogs as well.\
My views
Alright,
here's my story,
Grab a tissue,
It'll make you cry:
This is the story of an amazing, loyal, loving friend.
When I was a little girl, around four years of age, all I ever wanted was a dog.
You know that old saying where if you wish upon the first star of the night, your wish will come true?
I would wait for the first star EVERY night. I always made the same wish;
"Star bright, Star light, I wish upon the first star I see tonight. I wish for a dog to call my very own. Please may I have a dog?"
A year passed and my wish had not been granted, but I never gave up hope.
Then, one day my father came home, he was mad at me, screaming, yelling. Telling me to STOP LEAVING MY TOY DOGS IN THE CAR! He demanded I go out to the can NOW and remove that toy!!
I was crying, but began to do what I was told.
What was in that car?
In that car was a puppy.
A REAL puppy.
A puppy with mostly black fur, his paws were white, his legs golden. He had a white and gold belly. A tail that was a pretty even mix of black, white, and gold. Half pricked ears, a big blocky head, and a HUGE pibble smile.
MY puppy.
I named him Goalie, he was a black Labrador/German Shephed/American Pit Bull Terrier mix.
Goalie and I were best friends.
We did EVERYTHING together.
Eating ice cream.
Playing fetch (although he never brought back the dang ball)
Swiming together in the lake.
Fishing (he loved to try and eat them)
Eating treats.
Snuggling on the couch (but only when dad wasn't looking! No doggies on the couch he would say)
Going for walks.
He would sneak up to my bedroom (which was upstairs, he wasn't allowed upstairs) and cuddle with me after my dad would go to bed. When dads alarm went off in the morning, he would sneak back downstairs before he woke up. That clever dog.
When my mother died he was the first one I turned to. He kissed away my tears.
Once a week we would walk together (Goalie and I) to Mommy's gravesite to place flowers on it.
We would sit by her grave and just listen to the birds, and the wind through the trees of the graveyard.
Then, one day, everything changed.
We were on our usual walk to the graveyard. I had fresh daisies in my hand.
A red car pulled up to us and asked if I wanted ice cream.
I remembered what my dad said about strangers and cars.
I told him to "Leave me alone."
I was turning around to quickly go away, when he grabbed my arm.
The daisies dropped.
"Help!" That's the word that came out of my mouth.
Goalie, who in ALL his life had NEVER shown the slightest bit of aggression suddenly went BESERK.
He let out a snarl I never thought he was able to make and lunged for the mans arm.
He bit down and the man cried out in pain.
Goalie shook his head wildly from side to side.
The man let go of me.
Goalie instantly released him to look at me.
The man got back into his car, and began to speed away.
My loyal friend chased after the car, snarling, snapping, and barking like he was a mad dog.
To my eyes the most horrifing thing happened next.
The car reversed.
And ran Goalie over.
TWICE.
The the car sped off.
Goalie survived being run over.
He was recovering.
I had my best friend still with me.
FOUR MONTHS LATER.
I went outside into the backyard one day to play ball with Goalie.
He was lying beside a water dish.
A water dish we did not own.
Inside the water dish was some blue liquid.
And a note on the ground
"Your dog should have never bit me. You fucking brat."
Daddy said it was anti-freeze.
Goalies kidneys were failing him.
I held his paw as they put him to sleep.
He was my best friend in the whole wide world.
He was my HERO.
RIP GOALIE.
.
That is my lovely 12 year old "substantially similar" dog in the photo above. She is an adoptee from a local shelter and the reason I will not stop the fight against BSL. Buddy welcomed little fugitive Enzo into our home and together, they proved to be the most loving and loyal companions. We must not give up.
This is Storm's story...Storm was a 2 year-old female pit bull that we rescued from our neighbour - a paranoid delusional schizophrenic, prone to rages, that we came to learn he focused on her. We couldn't have known just how much violence until we finally approached him about her, and he admitted to having beaten and body slammed her. One of those beatings had left her leg so badly dislocated and shattered her ACL. She was terrified of everything, the stairs, any sudden movement, it was pitiful - and it took a lot of love, and patience to re-socialize her. She'd never been walked in her life, never known the love of a family, never known safety, or kindness, until we rescued her. From there she blossomed into the sweetest, gentlest, most loving dog I have ever known. Not once did she show any aggression, she was so patient and gentle even with one of my most mischievous cats, who delighted in attacking her from the shadows, and Storm would just lay there acting as though it was the most delightful game. I grew to love Storm as one would a child. She was so incredibly special, so affectionate, so sweet, so devoted...and so true to the pit bull nature that she was. My world came crashing down 2 years after we rescued her. Her last day was a beautiful spring day, we were sitting outside watching the day unfold, my arm around her drinking my coffee, and her cuddled up close, head tucked into my armpit, when suddenly she looked up at me, her eyelids started to flutter, she started to quake, and shake and fell on her side into a grand mal seizure. I rushed her to the vet, but despite every effort, the seizure would not subside. In the end, the belief is that the brutality she had experienced, and the severity of the beatings that she endured, had caused brain damage, which led to her seizure. In her last moments of lucidity, she looked up at me and kissed me one last time, before I held her as they euthanized her. One of the travesties of BSL is not only that it has demonized a beautiful, gentle, grossly misunderstood breed, but it's trapped others, similar in appearance, and driven them underground and placed them in even greater harm's way by making the breed a hot commodity in dog fighting rings, gangs, and backyard breeders, that supply that demand. They are beaten, abused, used as bait, brutalized, betrayed, and instead of protecting, and defending them they are vilified, or ripped out of the arms of the families that love them. They've been euthanized by the thousands, sold for research, and a breed once held in the highest esteem is now referred to as "shelter trash". And the thought of my girl, my sweet little angel bird, being anything remotely compared to "trash" breaks my heart. But I feel the greatest travesty of BSL is that it's robbed so many of the opportunity to ever have the chance to know the love and devotion of a pit bull, which is quintessentially one of the most profound experiences you can ever have.