Pit bull fans weary of bad rap

Vallejo, CA -- Meet Betty, a 5-year-old American pit bull terrier with a penchant for licking and a talent for winning dog shows.

Betty, her offspring Kitty and a related pit bull named Thor belong to Vallejo breeder Stephanie Davis, who loves her dogs and is tired of the negative attention the breed receives.

With no fewer than four pit bull attacks in Northern California this summer, and recent legislation opening the door to new restrictions on the breed, pit bull owners like Davis are beginning to feel the heat.

After years of owning pit bulls, Davis has come to expect a certain number of suspicious looks when she takes her pets for a walk. But nothing prepared her for the hostility she's faced in recent months.

"It hurts my feelings because I know what good dogs I have," she said.

Icy stares are followed by muttered comments like, "Wait until a pit bull attacks your children," she said.

The Benicia-Vallejo Humane Society's executive director, Ron Mayfield, said calls complaining about pit bulls have increased in recent months after the four Bay Area attacks.

The attacks have spurred lawmakers into action. Under new legislation co-written by state Sens. Noreen Evans, who represents Vallejo, and Jackie Speier, California cities may soon be able to impose laws governing neutering practices and regulating breeding for certain types of dogs.

"I still own pit bulls and I'll always own them," said Vallejo resident Leigh Schlosser, who bred them for 10 years before quitting to devote more time to her newborn daughter.

Schlosser grew up believing the breed's violent reputation but said she changed her mind when she began working in a veterinary hospital as an adult. Many dogs bit her, she said, but not one was a pit bull.

Davis, who grew up on a farm in Healdsburg, showed horses before she joined the pit bull circuit in 1999. She acquired Betty as a puppy the following year and bred the two younger dogs. Betty and Kitty are housebroken and enjoy the full range of the house, even curling up on Davis' bed at night when she lets them.

Multicolored ribbons obscuring one wall of Davis' Vallejo home testify to Betty's successes in dog shows.

Thor, 6 months old, is still a work in progress, but his training is coming along nicely, Davis said. Trixie, an irrepressible 11-year-old Jack Russell terrier, plays nursemaid to the frisky pup.

In the wake of the recent pit bull attacks, Davis understands her neighbors' negative reactions. But people mistakenly blame the breed when it's humans who are at fault, she said. "People are breeding pit bulls who haven't been doing their research and don't know what they're doing," she said.

Backyard breeding is common, as the popular canines fetch a high price on the dog market. But this do-it-yourself attitude comes at the cost of attention to temperament and adequate training, Davis said. Ignorant breeders often don't know what to look for in the animals' characters or are too willing to excuse disobedient behavior, she said.

Schlosser agrees. "The key to breeding dogs is responsibility," she said. "Pit bulls draw in the wrong crowd of people."

Davis' older pit bulls have passed the Canine Good Citizen test, which tests their manners with strangers and other dogs. Betty also passed the American Temperament Test, a more rigorous examination that gauges an animal's reaction to sudden noises and human aggression.

Pit bulls, Davis said, have an 83.6 percent passing rate, the same as golden retrievers. More excitable dogs, such as beagles, have a lower average. "A stable pit bull is going to be more stable than 99 percent of breeds out there," she said.

Still, says Humane Society's Mayfield, pit bulls are one of the four most dangerous breeds. He cited their history as bull fighters as evidence of their natural tendency toward aggressive behavior.

The most serious attack this summer occurred June 3, when a 12-year-old San Francisco boy was killed by at least one of his family's two pit bulls.

Davis insists Sen. Speier's proposed measure will not solve the problem. Instead, she recommended cracking down on backyard breeding and levying fees for unspayed canines of all kinds.

As for her own animals, Davis said, she is going to buy them T-shirts that say "I wasn't there" and wait for the fuss to blow over.

- E-mail Anna Ziajka at arziajka@aol.com or 553-6840.