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PinkLemonade2 t1_ja3qmtw wrote

Reply to comment by lucidlilacdream in Six-year-old Chesterville Girl Attacked by Dog Required 1,000 Stitches and Won’t Be Able to Smile Again by SarahDrish

I'm surprised at that, regarding your pup. I've worked at multiple shelters and they usually go out of their way to NOT say pitbull, for a list of reasons. My experience would say the exact opposite of what you have stated regarding "most shelter dogs".

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lucidlilacdream t1_ja3snmu wrote

I didn’t get my dog in the northeast, so it could be regional. And it doesn’t say pitbull, it says pit mix. I noticed that with almost all medium sized dogs when I got my dog. My dog doesn’t even have any pit features. He has a long face and looks like a lab. He does have shortish hair, but not the same kind of hair as pits. So, I remember it being weird. Conversely almost all small dogs were labeled chihuahua mix.

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PinkLemonade2 t1_ja3t18u wrote

Could be. Or just that specific shelter. One of the shelters I worked at was in the southeast (a SW Virginia Humane Society), and it was as I mentioned. We'd do anything we could to not label a dog that way.

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lucidlilacdream t1_ja3t3v6 wrote

This was in the southwest. I don’t know what the rules are. Humane society may be different than the county shelter as well in terms of whatever system they use.

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PinkLemonade2 t1_ja3ubz6 wrote

Could be. Like I said before, I've worked at a few different kinds of shelters, in different areas, and it's been pretty consistent regarding this topic.

I mentioned the southeast shelter specifically because in my experience that neck of the woods still has a very long way to go regarding how they treat animals, yet they still had policies like I described.

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Unable-Bison-272 t1_ja4cd5i wrote

My local shelter is almost exclusively pits or pit mixes. They are almost invariably labeled as labs or lab mixes. The shelters know they aren’t safe as house pets, most people know they aren’t safe so the shelters lie.

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PinkLemonade2 t1_ja4eqvr wrote

That's 100% not true. There are many reasons why a shelter would try to not use the word pitbull when describing a dog, but it is absolutely NOT because "they know they aren't safe as house pets".

The absolute worst case scenario for a shelter is a bad adoption, for many reasons. Shelters have nothing to gain, and alot to lose if they're having adoptions end poorly.

First and foremost, most of these dogs are mixed breed, so let's get that bit out of the way.

Now, as an example as to why a shelter would avoid using a pitbull label on a dog? Many places (apartment complexes, condos, gated communities) have self imposed rules that don't allow certain breeds, and often it includes pitbulls. So by avoiding that label, shelters are increasing the opportunities for the dog to find a home.

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