PBRC's 3rd Annual I Pittie, the Fool Contest!

It's time for Pit Bull Rescue Central's 3rd Annual "I Pittie, The Fool" photo contest! Are you entertained by your bully buddy's antics? Is your canine companion a constant comic cut-up?

Share those silly moments with everyone by submitting a photo to our contest!

To enter your playful pooch in our contest, send your photo, the dog's name, your name, and your email address to pbrccontest@pbrc.net. Once all pictures are received they will be put into a gallery for the public to vote on. The owner with the best fool of a pit bull will win a t-shirt from PBRC featuring his/her contest picture.

Please submit your photos no later than March 28, 2008 (Midnight EST). Multiple entries are welcome, but please submit only one photo per dog. And please remember safety first when snapping those silly pics!

Mark your calendars:

Deadline for photos: Fri March 28 (Midnight EST)
Foolish voting by everyone: Sun March 30
I Pittie, The Fool announced: Tues April 1

Good luck and may your hilarious hound win!

Palm Springs Pit Bull: Four-paw tour

A great way to tour Palm Springs is on foot. Grab a leash and a poop bag and follow me! Palm Springs is very dog-friendly. Many restaurants and coffee shops have outdoor seating where dogs can go. The fun part of Palm Canyon Drive with all the cute shops is one mile long; it’s good exercise to walk down one side and up the other. The earlier in the morning you go, the less crowded it is. In the summer it’s very hot here, like 90 degrees at 6am, so not many people visit then, but in the winter it’s much cooler and people tour from all over.

Another fun thing to tour is the Walk of Stars. There are over 250 stars in the sidewalk. To get one, you have to live in Palm Springs a while, be in show business, be an author or some kind of pioneer, or win a congressional medal of honor. Did you know Cheetah, the ape from Tarzan, lives here? He got a star! Cheetah is like 76 years old now and me and Dad walked by his house once. Cheetah is an artist. You can see some of his work HERE!

Palm Springs has art around the city like statues and sculptures, stuff my housemate Pepper pees on. Everyone likes to get pictures with Sonny Bono’s statue. I like it because there is fountain of water there and I love to go in fountains. In the summer, we do the “walk of fountains” so I don’t die of heat exposure. Sonny Bono was the mayor of Palm Springs until he skied into tree and died…so sad. Now there is statue and star for him since he was a likeable goofball like some dogs we all know.

The last thing on the walking tour is the road to the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. People park at visitor center and walk/run/bike up the road to Tram station and back for fitness. It’s 3 miles to the welcome sign and I think about 1500 ft elevation climb. Very fun walk! Mom said it was harder for her coming down than going up and her butt hurt for a week after. That’s because she’s out of shape…my butt was fine, but I did sleep good that night.

Next time: Palm Springs dog park…

PBRC commemorates SpayDay USA throughout February!

Only one week left to qualify for free gift with spay/neuter.

PBRC commemorates SpayDay USA throughout February! Join us as we "Celebrate the Pit Bull" all month long with special gift packs for spay/neuter assistance applicants.*

If your pit bull is not spayed or neutered, join us in our pledge to end pit bull homelessness and give the gift of good health to your loyal friend. We'll give you a free "Celebrate the Pit Bull" gift pack!*
All you need to do is complete an application for PBRC's spay/neuter assistance and follow through with the spay or neuter surgery.

CLICK HERE to go to the application!

* The application must be submitted in February and result in spay/neuter surgery to qualify for free gift. Gift pack includes oval sticker, zipper pull and ribbon magnet. While supplies last. Expect 4-6 weeks for delivery.

14th Annual SpayDay USA is February 26, 2008!

Join PBRC as we "Celebrate the Pit Bull" all February long to commemorate the 14th Annual SpayDay USA! PBRC is giving away special gift packs to applicants throughout February.*

As pit bull lovers, we know how special and extraordinary our dogs are. We want the best for them in every way so we take responsibility for their health, safety and well-being. Our dogs are loved.

But, many have never known this kindness because they were born into and suffering. Pit bulls make up the majority of animal shelter populations and most are euthanized due to lack of homes.

As and rescuers, we want to do our part to end pit bull homeless by spaying/neutering our dogs so they don't create unwanted litters. There are also many health benefits associated with spay/neuter including eliminating the risk of testicular cancer, lowering/eliminating the risk of mammary tumors in females, eliminating messy heat cycles, and lowering the risk of prostate cancer and peri-anal tumors in males.

If your pit bull is not spayed/neutered we hope you'll give him/her the gift of good health this February! As an added incentive, we'll give you a free "Celebrate the Pit Bull" gift pack! All you need to do is fill in an application for spay/neuter assistance and follow through with the spay/neuter surgery from February 1 through February 29, 2008 to qualify for your free gift.

Click here to go to the application page!

Is your pit bull already altered? Want to participate? For a minimum donation of $50 to our Spay/Neuter Fund to help fund a spay/neuter we'll send you a gift pack too! To make a donation with your credit card click here or send a check with "Spay/Neuter Fund" noted in the memo to: PBRC, PO Box 335, Fulton, MO 65251

Please help PBRC by spreading the word and encouraging your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and other individuals to get their pit bull or pit bull mix spayed or neutered through PBRC during February.

*The application must be submitted in February and result in spay/neuter surgery to qualify for free gift. Gift pack includes oval sticker, zipper pull and ribbon magnet. While supplies last. Expect 4-6 weeks for delivery.

The Incredible Journey

First let me introduce my pack, there is Sydney an 11 year old spayed/female pit bull, Samantha (now deceased) but at the time of our journey was a 10 year old spayed/female ‘pitador,' Murphy a 3 year old neutered male pit bull, Foster a 16 month old neutered male pit bull, Kipling a 13 year old kitty and an assortment of freshwater fish. I have been very fortunate that all of my critters get along together. Of course I always take precautions and always supervise their interactions, but at least so far they have always been friendly towards each other. Recently however, that friendship was put to the ultimate test!

My career took a sudden change that required a cross country move of my family from the western edge of Montana to the eastern edge of Virginia. Mapquest indicated that this would be a journey of more than 2300 miles and take an estimated 35.5 hours crossing at least part of 9 different states including Ohio in which BSL is rampant. Oh and did I mention my mother was coming along for the ride? Although I was looking forward to the new start in life, this journey was a huge concern. Mom doesn’t like riding in a car for more than 8-10 hours at a time and with 4 dogs, I was also planning on stopping for breaks every 3-4 hours. So that meant that we would all be stuck in an SUV together for at least 4 very long days and in a different hotel every night.

The Journey:

Day 1: We started out early on Saturday morning, got the car packed up in record time, made sure the house was completely empty and clean, waiting for the new owner. The dogs were excited to be going for a ride and were eager to get going….little did they know! I had reduced the stuff to carry myself to the absolute minimum so most of it could fit on top of the car, but there were various odds and ends that inevitably ended up inside taking up precious cargo room. Each of the dogs had a bed and a corner of the truck, the cat was in his carrier toward the front and the assorted fish were in a Tupperware box in the back. All of this was packed to make entry and exit from the car as easy as possible for the dogs at rest stops.

The beginning of our route took us past our most favorite hiking trails so we had to stop for one last quick hike before leaving our valley forever. Back in the car the dogs finally settled down to sleep.

Unfortunately however, my mom is a very conscientious driver who religiously uses her turn signals. Now normally that is a good thing, except to Sydney, turn signals indicate potty breaks so every time my mom would switch lanes, Sydney woke up and wanted a potty break. A couple raps with a rolled up newspaper taught my stubborn mom not to use her turn signals anymore!

It must have been a crazy site at the rest stops when two women and four pit bulls all come tumbling out of an SUV! The first day was relatively uneventful, the three older dogs were used to long drives and baby Foster took his cue from them and slept quietly in the back.

Our next test however was how to sneak 4 pit bulls and a cat into the hotels at night. This was where having two people came in handy. Pulling around the corner of the office allowed me to register with “I’m traveling with a medium-sized dog." Fortunately we were always lucky to get rooms far from the front desk so that we could then sneak them in two by two and take them for potty breaks the same way. The problem came when Foster after sleeping away the whole day in the car woke up and wanted to play all night long! Plus he had never been in a hotel before so it was a lot of fun jumping from one bed to the next.

The next few days were mostly uneventful. The dogs and cat got into the routine and were quite easy to deal with during our “pit” stops. Trying to keep Foster amused was rather difficult however. I had planned for this and brought his favorite toy--bubbles, to try to burn off some of his energy. So during a few of our rest stops and at hotels I tried exercising him on a long leash by blowing bubbles. It helped, but was not enough for a high energy pup who was used to running around a one acre yard everyday! Mid way, we decided to change our route somewhat so that we could avoid driving through Ohio entirely so that we wouldn’t face any of the rampant BSL. It added a few hours and an extra state or two to our trip, but the peace of mind was worth it.

Day four finally arrived, we had four more states to get through, but we were determined to make it to my new house if it killed us! It’s a good thing too because tempers were starting to flare in the back of the car. I t doesn’t matter how good of friends you are, when there is no room to move and brothers and sisters keep stepping on each other and sitting on each other, there is always the inevitable “MOM, He’s touching me!” which in this case came as growls and general pissy attitudes. But we made it, 12 hours later we arrived at our new home. The yard was not yet fenced so running around was still out of the question, but a large new home with no furniture yet made for some exciting races.

After four months, we’ve finally settled in, the fence is up and the furniture finally arrived. Sadly, Samantha lost her battle with cancer a few weeks after we arrived.

Despite our huge loss and our incredible journey, we are all still friends and we hope to never have to do it again.

~ Amanda and the BullyBrigade

The Best Speech I Never Gave!

Recently, I had to go to my dentist to get fitted for a crown. After I got settled, the doctor gave me my numbing shot and then left the office so I could get loopy. His assistant and I immediately started talking about my favorite topic – pit bulls.

Several minutes later, the doc returns and begins to work on my tooth. Just as he puts his tools in my mouth, he asks, "What were you gals in here chatting about?" The assistant replies, "Pit bulls". His response was, "Awww, you can throw them all away as far as I'm concerned."

I get a look of horror on my face and the assistant immediately begins to explains my love of pit bulls and how I work with a group that provides educational services as well as rescue assistance. He looks me in the eye and says, "You like pit bulls?" Since his tools were still in my mouth, I replied "AWWWWUVVVWITWULLS"!

What ensue after was an exchange between the dentist and assistant that consisted of each tossing out various myths and stories about pit bulls. Each would say something they had heard and then the other would correct them citing an article or TV show they'd seen. I was trying desperately to get a word in, but hey – that guy had a drill!

Needless to say, over the next half hour, the two of them came to the agreement that pit bulls weren't so bad after all and that much of what they'd heard was erroneous. As they finished up and the assistant was removing the gauze from my mouth, my dentist says, "Thank you so much for all the great information, we really learned a lot today."

I just smiled with my numb mouth and said, "Yaw Walcom"

~ Lynn, aka The Bat Whisperer

Woman to address ban of certain dogs at police assembly

Ledy VanKavage continues to spread her message that banning breeds of dogs does not make a difference in public safety.

On Sunday she will speak at the Winter 2008 Training Conference on Police Ethics for the Illinois Chiefs of Police in Collinsville at the Gateway Center.

"I'm talking about breed specific legislation and whether or not canine profiling is effective," she said.

It is a topic she addresses frequently.

"I'll talk about how it doesn't work," she said.

VanKavage is an attorney and the senior director of legislation and legal training for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She has a long history of activism in animal welfare matters and has founded and served on the boards of several organizations.

She lives in Collinsville and she practices what she preaches. She has rescued some pit bulls, a breed that many want banned because of viciousness. VanKavage has three rescued brindle pit bulls named Clarence Darrow, Che and Bella.

At the conference she will offer alternatives for police to help get dangerous dogs under control.

"There are dangerous dog laws in Illinois that a lot of police don't know about," she said. "Under Illinois law, it is very easy to get a dog declared dangerous. Not vicious. That's a much more involved procedure involving the court system."

VanKavage said dangerous dogs should be identified by behavior, not breed.

"I'm working on trying to get the police to focus on that," she said. "That is what I will be educating them about."

She said experience has shown that banning specific breeds doesn't change the number of dog bite incidents.

"Specific breed laws don't work," she said. "We've seen it in several different countries where they enacted breed restrictions. Even with the breeds restricted, their bite statistics don't change."

She offers her rescued pit bulls as an example of how a supposed dangerous breed can be handled. She said her cats dominate the much larger animals.

People used to go off trail to avoid the dogs when they were walked. But when the pit bulls have on some sort of costume, people come over and talk to them and are fascinated, she said.

"A lot of it is perception," she said.

At the conference, a pair of rescued pit bulls who are drug sniffing dogs for the Washington State Police also will perform a demonstration.