Whatled you to start the Brew City Bully Club?
My husband and I got ourpit bullthis was 2008and I searched for any type of local resource to see ifwe could find people to have a play date or to talk to about getting advice. Icompletely struck out, so I said, “I’m going to put an ad on Craigslist and seeif I can get anyone to help with advice for Capone.” I put up the ad and inless than 24 hours I got 30 responses. Not one was about a play date, but theywere like, “My pit bull keeps eating my socks, what should I do?” or, “I don’tknow where to take my pit bull to get neutered.” So I posted a second ad,saying that we could all try to work together on these different problems, andthat’s when I started the Brew City Bully Club. We came up with a list ofobjectives and I think we filled a need for something like this in Wisconsin.
Whatare some misconceptions about pit bulls?
There are a lot of them.The main one is that they are scary, vicious dogs. They can be, sure. Toclarify, the myth is that they are born that way and are going to grow into avicious, baby-eating machine. It doesn’t help that they’re often portrayed inthe media that way.
A lot of folks don’tknow that when we had huge migrations from Europe,pit bulls were the pet of choice for those families, because they are suchgreat family pets. Fast-forward to the ’80s, add cocaine and thugs, and youhave pit bulls discarded into the streets when they don’t fight well enough,left to be picked up by animal control. There is a huge misconception thatthese animals can’t be rehabilitated. That misconception was blown out of the waterwith the Michael Vick case, where about 60 dogs were saved.
Whatare some of the Brew City Bully Club’s goalsfor this year?
We worked with about 150dogs last year, since we incorporated, and we’re on pace to do 150-plus privatetrainings this year, about three or four per week. That’s in addition to groupwork. With the End Dogfighting in Milwaukeeprogram, we have a pit bull training team of youths, and we teach them that adog is not an object or a possession, but a living being they need to respect,and who will respect them in return.
Inwhat ways do pit bulls make good pets?
You have a very loyal,smart doga lot of times very animated, with funny, unique personalities. It isa big responsibility, so not everyone is cut out for it. You need to devotetime to exercise and train. You will have to deal with some negativityI’veseen mothers pick up their children and cross the street when they see a pitbull. If you do take the responsibility, you will have a loyal friend for life.
For more information, visitwww.brewcitybullies.org.
