Beloved! Reviled! Sweet! Fierce! Wouldn’t hurt a fly! A time bomb that explodes without warning!
For more than a century, pit bulls have been at the center of a bitter debate between those who love them and those who loathe them.
“They’re adorable,” says Sarah Babcock, chief of education and training at the Richmond SPCA. “They are big, block-headed, derpy dogs that are generally very loyal and very willing to do whatever you want them to do.”
Bullies may be beloved by some in the River City, but they also have detractors, who cite bite statistics and tragic attacks as reasons to ban the breed. The dogs have starred in commercials and been forced to fight.
So, are pit bulls popular or pariahs?
Top Dogs
Bully breeds account for up to 80% of dogs at Richmond SPCA and RACC. (Photo by Crisp Pics LLC Event Photography courtesy Richmond SPCA)
Pit bulls, or dogs that are broadly referred to as pit bulls, are one of the most popular pets in Richmond. “They have a big fan club,” Babcock says. “I know that’s true in Richmond and has been for quite a while. To hear that they are at an all-time high wouldn’t surprise me.”
At Richmond Animal Care & Control, the city’s animal shelter, Director Christie Peters says the dog population “never drops below 80% pitties.” She isn’t sure why the breed is so prominent here, “just a general theory that pits are more prevalent in urban communities.”
Pitties are definitely popular nationwide. “A recent analysis of over 200K veterinary interactions found that dogs labeled as ‘pit bulls’ are the most popular breed in at least 21 states and the most popular dogs in the U.S. overall,” says the nonprofit research and advocacy group PitbullHero. “Additionally, veterinary data from Banfield [Pet Hospital, which has more than 1,000 locations nationwide] indicated that the population of pit bulls has increased while the popularity of other large breeds has declined.” According to the group, the population of German shepherds has decreased 7% and that of Labrador retrievers has gone down 17%, while the number of pit bull-type dogs has increased 24%.
Or has it?
“We have always had a number of pit bull-type dogs in our shelter,” says Richmond SPCA CEO Tamsen Kingry. However, precise numbers are impossible to pin down for two reasons: Pit bulls aren’t actually a breed, and people are bad at identifying them.
Kingry explains, “‘Pit bull’ refers to a type of dog rather than a breed,” in much the same way “hound” refers to a type of dog but encompasses more than 30 breeds. The American Kennel Club recognizes numerous “bully” breeds, which it describes as having “solidly built, wide bodies and short coats … large square heads, short muzzles, short triangular ears, and powerful jaws.”
Further, Babcock says, “I really think there are a large number of breeds that people are quick to attach [the pit bull] label. There has been some good research done on identification, and it shows we humans are pretty bad at labeling pit bulls.”
Only 33% to 48% of dogs that were visually identified as pit bulls had any pit bull DNA, according to two studies done in 2009 and 2015 and published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science and the Veterinary Journal, respectively. Even more surprising is that, according to the studies, many dogs that have pit bull-type DNA were not visually identified as such.
“We know that visually identifying a breed is very inaccurate,” says Dr. Amy Learn, chief of medicine for Richmond’s Animal Behavior Wellness Center. “There have been stories in the press or reports of different aggression incidents for dogs in the past that we often mislabel as pit bulls. That is categorizing a lot of dogs because they happened to be very muscular and have short fur and big, blocky heads.”
The bully umbrella includes numerous breeds descended from bulldog blends: the bullmastiff; the bull terrier (think Bullseye, the Target mascot, and Bud Light’s Spuds MacKenzie); the Staffordshire Bull Terrier; and the larger American Staffordshire Terrier, also called the American Pit Bull Terrier (like Pete the Pup of “Little Rascals” fame). The AKC classifies the American bulldog in a developmental category and not eligible for registration, while the United Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1999 and added a further variant, the American Bully, in 2013.
(From left) Richmond SPCA Director of Communications Tabatha Treloar says of her pit bull adoptee, Roux, “I’ve had smart dogs before, but she is my first truly clever dog.” Chief Advancement Officer Carol Anne Baker Lajoie takes her pit bull, Zeke, to schools as a therapy dog. “He’s bomb proof,” she says. “Kids can play the bongos on his head and he doesn’t move.” CEO Tamsen Kingry shares her office with two pit bull mixes, Maggie (pictured) and Bart, that she says are “wonderfully affectionate, smart and loyal.” (Photo by Zaid Hamid)
Pittie Past
“The story of the pit bull is fascinating because it is such an American story. Whether you love or hate them, they’ve been a huge part of who we are from the Battle of Gettysburg onward,” says Bronwen Dickey, author of “Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon.” “There have been many highs and lows, and they are still with us.”
For as long as dogs have been man’s best friend, they have been bred for jobs such as guarding, retrieving, herding or detection. According to Dickey, the ancestry of today’s pit bulls can be traced back centuries to the original bulldog, a fierce, muscular animal able to chase bulls around a pen. Gamblers may have bet on the outcome of the showdown, but the intent of the conflict was culinary: The frightened bull’s muscles flooded with lactic acid, which apparently produced a more tender meat.
In 1835, the British government banned bullbaiting, citing cruelty to animals. Dogfighting — long established and also illegal but easier to hide — took its place, often held in literal underground pits in London and New York. Breeders, seeking profit and bragging rights, created a fighting dog by crossing bulldogs with terriers, which were feistier and more agile.
Although the resulting “pit bulldogs” were fierce fighters, the AKC says they were not generally dangerous to people. “Though it seems counterintuitive, dogs bred for fighting their own kind were intrinsically human friendly. They had to be in order for these high-stakes matches to run smoothly. … Any dog that bit humans … did not live to fight another day.” Outside cities, the trait helped pit bulls gain a reputation as family-friendly farm dogs useful for hunting and guard duty.
Pit bulls were bred to be sports dogs. They are strong, loyal, smart. They have a bad reputation because of what humans did to them.
—Dr. Brit’nee Haskins, Richmond SPCA veterinary medical director
Dogfighting was largely outlawed in the U.S. in the 1860s, and its prevalence waned in Britain, as well. In England, according to the AKC, “Unemployed Bull Terriers became fashionable among young gentlemen of the mid-1800s. Breeders set to work on refining the breed’s looks and sweetening its temperament, better to play the role of an upper-crust companion dog.”
In America, breeders similarly sought to clean up the pit bulls’ bad image. “Fighting-dog breeders suddenly had a surplus of pups, and a horde of gamblers were looking for a new sport to lay their money down on,” writes Michael Worboys, author of “The Invention of the Modern Dog.”
Overt fights gave way to more subtle contests: dog shows. The Victorians bred dogs for good looks and athletic performance and then registered them as such by creating organizations including England’s Royal Kennel Club, founded in 1873, and the American Kennel Club, begun in 1884. Selective breeding eventually led to the recognition of more than 360 dog breeds.
One breeder, John P. Colby of Newburyport, Massachusetts, thought he could put “one foot in the world of fighting and one in the world of parlor pet,” Dickey writes. “He bred an estimated five thousand of his pit bulldogs and sold them to a roster of clients, including William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion.”
Stories of pitties’ dedication, playfulness and loyalty started rolling in as celebrities touted their pups, and a public relations campaign portrayed pitties as affectionate family dogs. The AKC had recognized British bull terriers as a breed in 1885, and breeders wanted the same for the American branch of the pit bull family, but the organization wanted nothing to do with dogs descended from fighters.
So, pit bull breeders created their own club in 1898: the United Kennel Club, which recognized the American pit bull terrier as a breed. Club founder Chauncey Bennett assigned UKC registration No. 1 to his own APBT, Bennett’s Ring. “It was a rejection of all the fussy breeds, the high-born, expensive dogs that were the fashion of high society. It was just the kind of rough-and-tumble, all-American dog with a patch on his eye,” Dickey says.
A Quirk Hotel employee found Cappuccino wandering Jackson Ward last spring, so the hotel housed the pit pup while RACC sought his owner. General Manager Morgan Slade later adopted Cappy, who “comes to work most days, greets our team and hangs out at the front desk to meet our guests during the day, and does the occasional ‘Cappy Hour’ in the evening,” Slade says. “He loves people, loves the hotel. ... This dog just makes people happy when they see him.” Follow Cappy on Instagram @cappuccinoatquirk. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Doggy Debate
The breed designation did little to blunt the bad-boy image of the American pit bull terrier or tone down the debate about the dogs, which continues to this day.
“I think the bias against pit bulls is historic,” says Dr. Brit’nee Haskins, the veterinary medical director of the Richmond SPCA and The Street Dog Coalition, which provides free vet services to the pets of people experiencing homelessness. “Pit bulls were bred to be sports dogs. They are strong, loyal, smart. They have a bad reputation because of what humans did to them.”
Kingry asserts, “Pit bull types of dogs are not physiologically different from any other dog breed out there.”
Except maybe they are, says DogsBite.org, a widely cited nonprofit organization and public education website that espouses “putting the safety of humans before animals.” The group states on its website that breeding pit bulls for fighting led them to develop “enormous jaw strength, as well as a ruinous ‘hold and shake’ bite style, designed to inflict the maximum damage possible on their victims.”
In response, the pro-pittie posse point to studies that show bite strength correlates with size and head shape. As the Dog Advisory Council website puts it, pit bulls have “the strongest bite strength within their category of medium-sized dog breeds. Still, their bite is far below what larger dog breeds are capable of doing.”
It’s often claimed that their pit-fighting past makes bully breeds unusually aggressive. However, Dickey writes, only pure APBTs were bred for fighting and, according to historical estimates, just 1% to 10% actually fought. “Therefore, comparing the temperaments and behaviors of elite fighting dogs with those of all pit bulls is a bit like using the U.S. Navy SEALs as a benchmark for all American men.”
“I love their big energy! No matter what, they want to do everything with full heart, full commitment!” says Roger Quick of Lakeside about his two pit bulls, Ricah, 8, and Rainy, 6. He rescued Ricah, the black dog, in 2018 after seeing someone abandon her on a road in North Carolina. Rainy, the brindle, joined the pack when a co-worker had to rehome her. Quick says the dogs’ “love-of-life energy” plays no small part in keeping him “this side of a tombstone.” (Photo by Jay Paul)
Isain Zapata, a scientist at Colorado’s Rocky Vista University, analyzed data from nearly 70,000 dog owners and showed that small dogs like Chihuahuas and dachshunds are, on average, the most aggressive — not frequently banned larger breeds such as pit bulls and rottweilers. Zapata also found a link between the genes for short legs and aggression in some breeds. Pit bulls, despite their terrier ancestry, did not appear to have the aggression gene.
Stark statistics on DogsBite.org purport to show that pit bulls account for a disproportionate number of dog bites and human deaths. By compiling reports from news and police reports and other sources, DogsBite.org found, “In the 15-year period of 2005 through 2019, canines killed 523 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 66% (346) of these deaths.” It’s also widely reported that pit bulls account for 22.5% of all dog bites, but the source study is unclear.
The National Center for Health Statistics cites a similar number: 468 dog-related deaths from 2011 to 2021, an average of 43 deaths annually; the report did not list specific breeds. An earlier NCHS accounting attributed 279 deaths to dog attacks from 1979 through 1994; pit bulls and pit mixes were cited in 70 (25%) of the incidents.
A study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2001 contends, “It is not possible to calculate a bite rate for a breed or to compare rates between breeds.” As Babcock, Kingry and Learn stated, echoing that article and others in the years since, reliable, breed-specific dog counts aren’t available in a community or the country, and dog breeds are often inaccurately identified or recorded. Even the number of pet dogs in America (89.7 million in 2024, according to the AVMA) is only an estimate.
Any preventable injury or death is a tragedy, and dog bites are very common — reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate as many as 4.5 million Americans experience minor dog bites annually, and more than 322,000 go to the emergency room for treatment. “Invariably the numbers will show that dogs from popular, large breeds are a problem,” according to the AVMA article. “This should be expected because big dogs can physically do more damage if they do bite, and any popular breed has more individuals that could bite.”
Pit bull pals debunk other detractors with simple math. For example, one oft-cited 2015 study says, “The most common breed of dog inflicting ocular [eye] injury was the pit bull (25%).” In real numbers, the percentage referred to fewer than 25 people over 10 years. For context, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2022 that an average of 163 people per year had died in falls from ladders from 2016 to 2020.
Nevertheless, popular perception and media portrayals of pits as dangerous led to their banning by countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia; over 900 U.S. cities; insurance companies; and many public housing authorities, condo and apartment buildings, and HOAs. In Virginia the code reads, “No locality shall prohibit the ownership of a particular breed of dog.” Peters notes that RACC “disagrees strongly against any breed restrictive legislation.” Regardless, breed-specific rental restrictions abound in Richmond, excluding pit bulls.
Says a 19-year employee of Diamond Dog House, a day care and boarding facility near The Diamond, “People call me all the time, and I won’t take [pit bulls] here.” She wouldn’t give her name because “there is a real prejudice against those that don’t like pit bulls. I like the breed, but I don’t like the breed with other dogs.”
John Held and Céire Neylan of Highland Park share three pittie pups: (from left) Cannoli, 7; Tempeh, 13; and Sally, 13. (A fourth, Clyde, recently died.) The most energetic of the pack despite losing a leg due to previous neglect, Cannoli enjoys belly rubs and “munching on 2-by-4s,” Neylan reports. Sally is “more laid back and independent, but she’s never far from us,” while Tempeh “loves a good snuggle,” Neyland says. “We knew the stigma around the breed. ... I have found [pit bulls] to honestly be some of the sweetest dogs.” (Photo by Jay Paul)
Fear No Breed
“I know some adorable, sweet pit bulls that I would trust with my cats, and then I know a bunch that have never been taught any self-control and are allowed to be their wildest selves, and that makes them a little harder to manage,” says Janet Velenovsky, a certified canine behavior expert who has been training dogs in the Richmond area for more than 25 years. “It all depends upon how the dog weathers the challenge of difficult situations,” she says. “Resilience is really important. Dogs that are subjected to really uncomfortable situations over long periods of time obviously have a lot harder time” living in a household.
She recalls the infamous 2007 bust of the Surry County dogfighting ring run by Michael Vick, then the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, where approximately 50 pit bull terriers were seized. Vick was convicted on federal offenses and imprisoned for nearly two years, banned by the NFL, ordered to reimburse the Falcons a percentage of his earnings, and lost millions of dollars in endorsements.
As a result of Vick’s actions, then-President George W. Bush signed into law the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, which made the trafficking of animals used in dogfighting a felony. However, as USA Today reported in March, “The Humane Society estimates more than 40,000 people in the U.S. participate in the illegal practice. It’s also big business, with fight purses running as high as $100,000.”
Of the 50 dogs seized in the Vick raid, 47 were rehabilitated, according to a 2019 story in The Washington Post. “Some of the dogs struggled to heal emotionally and remained fearful through their lives,” wrote the article’s author, Emily Giambalvo. “But they all found homes far more loving than the horror-film kennel that made headlines around the globe.”
Ultimately, no dog should be judged solely by its breed. As the ASPCA notes in its Position Statement on Pit Bulls, “It is likely that that the vast majority of pit bull-type dogs in our communities today are the result of random breeding — two dogs being mated without regard to the behavioral traits being passed on to their offspring. The result of random breeding is a population of dogs with a wide range of behavioral predispositions. For this reason, it is important to evaluate and treat each dog, no matter its breed, as an individual.”
Local trainers and behavioralists agree, urging potential pet parents — and, presumably, anyone making decisions about dogs — to look beyond the breed. “I think it is more important to look at the behavior of any individual dog than we look at breeds and be worried or afraid of a breed. I see the same unwanted, undesired behavior in many types of dogs,” Haskins says.
“Any dog you bring into a home should be checked by a veterinarian,” Velenovsky advises, “and it’s a good idea to take a class on how dogs think and learn and how to address problem issues right away. One of the things I wish is that people would spend a little more time thinking about how they want a dog to fit into their lives. … If you don’t want a busy, energetic pit bull, don’t get it. Get a lap dog.”
Looking at the larger picture and charting the dogs’ meteoric rise in popularity and subsequent fall from grace, Dickey writes, “The level of collective fury that has been directed against this one group of animals is unprecedented, rivaled only by the annihilation of wolves on the American frontier.” But in recent decades, she notes, “America began to reconsider the dog it had once loved so dearly.” Perhaps advocacy, animal rescues, community events and sweet social media stories will redeem their reputations and will one day end the debate about pit bulls’ place in the pantheon of family pets.
Pit Bull Patron Saint
A victim of animal cruelty is now a symbol of hope for injured animals statewide
In February 2019, a pit bull, later named Tommie, was found after he had been tied to a fence, doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. Although doctors associated with Richmond Animal Care & Control were unable to save Tommie, his story and the staff’s heroic efforts went viral and prompted a tidal wave of well wishes and donations.
In his memory, the RACC Foundation created the Tommie Fund to help cover the costs of emergency medical care for animals in need at municipal animal shelters and public animal control agencies across Virginia.
According to RACC Director Christie Peters, since 2020 the fund has raised $572,953 through donations and a Team Tommie specialized license plate, and spent it on emergency medical care across 49 participating municipal agencies. “We are so proud of this program,” Peters says. “We are able to gift officers across the state the option to save lives versus euthanize the animals they work to protect.”
