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Man Aims to Rescue Pit Bulls
www.myfoxatlanta.com
Program Aims to Rescue Pit Bulls
Updated: Friday, 04 Nov 2011, 10:53 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 04 Nov 2011, 10:27 PM EDT
Buck
Lanford
By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF/myfoxatlanta
ATLANTA - Large litters and over breeding have led to a pit bull overpopulation problem. One man is trying to help solve the problem, one neighborhood at a time.
On any given day at DeKalb County animal services and enforcement, pit bulls and pit bull mixes make up half of the dogs in the shelter. The overpopulation of the breed is a common theme at similar shelters across the country.
Jason Flatt founded Friends to the Forlorn, Pit Bull Rescue . Two years later, the emails and messages requesting help from around the country come in by the hundreds.
With demand for pit bulls not even coming close to keeping up with supply, Flatt decided to help fight the overpopulation problem by literally hitting the street through a program called "Tails in the Hood."
"What we do is we reach out to kids on the street to the lower-income, high pit bull areas where the little old lady from the humane society are not going to go,” said Flatt. “I’m not the sweet little lady. I don't have a problem with it. I don't judge people. I go out there and I try to educate them."
The chains and tires are all that is left in the backyard of the home in Atlanta's White Oak Hills neighborhood where 24-year-old GK Simpson wanted to breed pit bulls to make money. That all changed after an encounter with Flatt, Byron Haygood of B-Good Dog Behavior Modification and a trip to DeKalb County animal services and enforcement.
"They showed me a problem. I didn’t even know it was a problem. Honestly, I didn’t even know what happens to dogs when they go to the pound,” Simpson said. “I thought they were going to a better place. I didn’t know they were going to be killed."
“We don't tell them, we show them, and a lot of times when they see some of the things we show them, if they have a heart, they decide they want to do the right thing,” said Haygood.
In DeKalb County Alone, 1,243 pit bulls were euthanized between January and October of this year. That comes out to 124 per month. That cold hard realization not only convinced GK to get his dogs spayed, neutered, and up to date on their shots -- he now feels like he is part of the solution as an advocate that all pets be fixed, and an employee of Lifeline, a low cost animal clinic in Avondale Estates.
"I’m able to get to guys that probably wouldn't talk to a rescue. They'd probably talk to me first, because I'm from the same neighborhoods….done some of the same things around them. Been part of the community, and I can relate,” Simpson said.
The Tails in the Hood program provides shots, de-worming and other medical needs for the dogs, as well as proper leashes, collars and crates. They also pay for the dogs to get spayed or Neutered. The most important service they provide is education to the dog owner. Their goal is simple: to try to keep pit bulls from going to the pound.
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