CBS News 5, Bay area, California

http://beta.kpix.com/news/local/2004/02/13/Pit_Bull_Epidemic_in_Bay_Area_Animal_Shelters.html

Pit Bull Epidemic in Bay Area Animal Shelters

Overcrowding in animal shelters is largely blamed on pit bulls.

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There is a hidden crisis at animal control shelters around the Bay Area, and dogs are dying because of it.

One day recently, at least ten cages at Oakland's animal control were holding pit bulls. Some were so aggressive that they were a threat to other dogs, even behind bars.

"The dog that was in the cage next to him slipped under the guillotine door and attacked him," said animal control's Lori Barnabe about one injured dog.

Across the bay, at San Francisco's Animal Control, "Gangsta" and four siblings sit on death row, after a mauling so severe that the victim has been referred to as "the Dianne Whipple who lived."

"The worst injuries were to her head," said animal control Captain Vicky Guldbech. "The male dog was pulling at her scalp."

But while the Bay Area has seen its share of pit bull attacks, what most of us don't see is the hidden crisis these dogs cause 365 days a year -- an epidemic of pit bulls that's straining the animal control system to it's limits.

Animal control agencies recently responded to a dog pack in Oakland, an escaped pit bull in San Jose, and in San Francisco a drug raid that ended with a shooting of a pit bull that charged an officer. And dead or alive, the dogs are all headed for Animal Control. Many have been bred for fighting, others are abandoned or abused, and finding safe homes for them is often impossible.

"Our shelter is predominantly pit bulls," said Guldbech. "It puts a horrible burden on us because we don't know where these dogs come from."

Glenn Howell of Oakland Animal Control said, "The dogs we are unable to place... really impacts our ability to hold the nice dogs."

That pressure is increasingly costing lives. Oakland was forced to put down nearly 1500 dogs last year, San Francisco 733, and in the South Bay almost 2,768. While most agencies don't track by breed, estimates range anywhere from a third to half of the dogs brought in are now pit bulls and pit mixes, and thousands are being euthanized every year.

It's all happening in an environment where vets work to save injured animals, and coordinators spend their professional lives trying to find homes for every adoptable animal that comes through.

"It's horrible for what we are trying to accomplish," said Guldbech. "We're trying to accomplish live adoption and when these dogs come in bred for aggression, everything we are doing goes down the toilet."

» 02-13-2004

Previous Coverage:
Pit Bull Breeding Fuels Animal Control Crisis http://beta.kpix.com/news/local/2004/02/13/Pit_Bull_Breeding_Fuels_Animal_Control_Crisis.html
Related Links:
Pit Bull information http://beta.kpix.com/news/newslinks/Pit_Bull_Information.shtml