Pit bulls are often regarded as aggressive and even some countries have made owning them illegal. The breed itself is not inherently aggressive but random breeding, along with bad housing conditions and breeding can lead to aggressive behaviors. All of those factors would most likely lead any dog to possess aggressive tendencies, however pit bulls are overbred and neglected at a higher rate. Gert Schooly is the founder of Pitty City Rescue, whose mission is to save the lives of as many dogs as she can.
Share a bit about Pitty City and what you do.
Before Pitty started, I was rescuing pit bulls since my early twenties. I happened to live in Fairmount and came across this guy that was in the park and he had all of these puppies running around. I was like what are you doing with these puppies, and he said, ‘oh I’m selling them’.
So one of the things I used to do and still do on occasion is I will just buy puppies to make sure that they were never going to be bred, or fought, or end up back in the shelter system where the rate of euthanasia for pit bulls is the highest of any breed.
I did this for a long time by myself, out of my own pocket, just buying these pit bull puppies or rescuing them. When some people learned about me, they would be like ‘can you take my dog’ and I would be like ‘yes’. I mean there were times when I had like ten dogs in my house, it was kind of crazy.
Once I experienced the breed it was like love at first sight.
When did you begin to organize the rescue?
When I met Nicole, and she adopted one of the pit bulls from me and she became my partner in crime, and we kept rescuing the breed on our own. I was like we are pending so much of our own money, let’s get this legal and so one of our clients are lawyers and they actually did it pro bono for us and that’s how we officially became the Pitty City Rescue.
Photo: Before and after photos of Frank, one of many Pitty City rescue successes.
Which areas do most of the dogs you rescue come from?
Unfortunately the Kensington area. A lot of it is where ACCT Philadelphia and the SCPCA are, there’s a lot of backyard breeding in the area.
Why do most dogs come into your care?
Unfortunately backyard breeders don’t even understand that it’s an animal. To them its just pure money and that’s why you see a lot of the mommas in such horrible condition. They are breeding machines and they get the bare minimum, if that.
Since you began, have you seen an increase or decrease in the amount of dogs that need homes?
I don’t think its gotten any better but I think people are more aware and report backyard breeding and cruelty more often. I don’t necessarily think a lot is done about it.
What can the community do to address these issues?
Because the shelters are city funded I think getting more funds would be helpful but it’s not like they aren’t aware. I was at city hall protesting, did that change anything? Unfortunately, no. I think it would be a matter of changing politics in Philadelphia. Maybe they should take a walk through ACCT Philadelphia or go into some of these neighborhoods to see how they’re living, maybe that would change the way of thinking or how these circumstances are handled. There are law enforcement officers for animal cruelty but they’re so overwhelmed that they can only do so much.
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