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What happens when a dog suspected of being used in a fight?

By Bill Mayeroff, bmayeroff@qconline.com


DAVENPORT -- Any fighting dog taken to the Humane Society of Scott County is an unlucky animal.

According to executive director Pam Arndt, dogs that staff suspect have been used in fighting do not often make it out of the shelter alive.

"It's a safety factor," she said, "because we don't know what verbal command, what body signal it would take to set (an attack) in motion."

Ms. Arndt said there are signs, including scars on the head and ears, that a dog has been used in fighting. "Were they fighters or were they bait? It's hard to determine," she said.

Dogs that have possibly been used in fighting that come into the Scott County shelter are kept five days before staff members test their behavior.

"We test them with other dogs," Ms. Arndt said, adding that they also test to see how the dog responds to food and people.

Sometimes whether a dog is put up for adoption or euthanized depends on whether the staff can find an owner who can handle the dog well, she said. "Not everybody would be able to take one of these home."

Rich Glessner, director of Rock Island County Animal Care and Control, said the decision to put a suspected fighting dog up for adoption or euthanize it is almost philosophical.

"Generally, these dogs are very loyal and very docile towards humans," Mr. Glessner said. "They are trained to be aggressive towards other dogs."

He said suspected fighting dogs that come into the Rock Island County shelter also take temperament tests, given by a third party.

"A good portion of them won't pass," he said, and thus have to be euthanized. But not passing the test is not necessarily a death sentence, Mr. Glessner said. Before euthanizing a dog he will try to find rescue groups to take care of it.

Pookie was lucky enough to make it out of the Rock Island shelter alive, Mr. Glessner said. "The dog was evidence in a trial," he said. "We seized the dogs."

Pookie, an "extremely sweet, extremely lovable" pit bull mix, was housed at the Rock Island shelter for a year while the trial was going on, he said, and was the only seized dog to make it out alive.

"I don't think it had it in it to be a fighter," Mr. Glessner said, adding that Pookie may have been "bait" -- a dog that other fighting dogs will maul for practice. "Everybody loved her. In the year that we had her, we never saw an ounce of aggression in her."

Dave VanLandegan used to perform temperament tests on dogs that came into the Rock Island County shelter.

"I have a set agenda of tasks I go through with the dog," said Mr. VanLandegan. "Is the dog accepting of a friendly stranger? Is the dog accepting of other dogs?"

He is in the process of becoming certified by the American Temperament Test Society, which is a group working to create uniform temperament standards for purebred and mixed-breed dogs.

But even passing a temperament test does not guarantee a fighting dog will be adopted. Mr. VanLandegan thinks that misconceptions about fighting dogs keep people from adopting them.

"Our source of knowledge comes from the media," Mr. VanLandegan said, adding that people tend to think certain breeds are inherently dangerous. "If one dog does something, it would appear that all dogs do it."

Ms. Arndt agrees that the media plays a large role in the perception of certain breeds.

"People in the neighborhood want nothing to do with the dogs," she said, adding that people tend to complain when large, working breeds like pit bulls and Rottweilers move into a neighborhood. She said the Scott County shelter sometimes gets calls from people complaining about such dogs and asking that they be picked up. "We just explain to them that there is not a breed-specific law."

Ms. Arndt said she thinks banning certain breeds of dog is a bad idea and does not work. "We've seen (Labrador retrievers) that can be just as nasty as a pit bull," she said. "You have to judge each dog individually."

In fact, Mr. Glessner said, breed banning may do more harm than good.

"If you tell people they can't have (pit bulls), they'll just move to another breed," he said, adding that the trend of people using pit bulls as fighting dogs is a fad that has developed over about the last 10 years.

One woman thinks former fighting dogs -- even those that show some aggression -- are just what some law enforcement agencies need.

Diane Jessup, who runs LawDogsUSA in Olympia, Wash., trains them to work with law enforcement groups.

"I screen them and train them for a couple months," Ms. Jessup said, adding that fighting dogs have the drive needed to be effective bomb and drug-sniffing dogs. "They have to have an over-the-top desire to play with a toy. We're going to make sure they don't have a high level of dog aggression."

Ms. Jessup said some law enforcement agencies are already using pit bulls or pit bull mixes. "U.S. Customs has always had a few pit bulls," she said. "Of all the working breeds, they're the friendliest working breed with people."

The bottom line, Mr. Glessner said, is that to keep the fighting dog problem under control, dog owners need to be more responsible -- no matter what the breed. Most suspected fighting dogs that come into the Rock Island County shelter, he said, are not spayed or neutered, which would reduce aggression.

Training is just as important as spaying or neutering, he added. "If you don't train them, they can become unruly. Dog obedience training is highly recommended for all dog owners."

And shelters also have some responsibility, he said, to make sure all dogs that are adopted go to good homes.

"Most of the people that want former fighting dogs shouldn't have them," he said. "Any dog can be trained to be mean. I think aggression can be bred into the dog."


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