Yet 
Proud poppas. Their stud service only costs 300 pounds (586 U.S. dollars). I don't imagine the puppies to be much less in price.Why are pit bulls the main dog of choice in Bed-Stuy? Is it just because they look tough? Or are they being used for dogfighting? In researching pit bulls in Brooklyn I came across a number of animal shelters with abused pit bulls. Pit Bulls on the Web has a shocking page with explicit photographs of the abused dogs - I couldn't even scroll down the entire page, it was too painful to look at. They take an adamant stance against breeding pit bulls:
Pit Bulls have it the hardest as most dog shelters in North America have a non-adoption policy on this breed. Healthy and friendly dogs are automatically euthanized just for being a Pit Bull or looking like one. Because unscrupulous people are allowed to breed dogs without any sort of regulation, Pit Bulls are now the #1 breed of dog killed in shelters every month. In Los Angeles alone, it is estimated that up to 200 Pit Bulls *A DAY* are destroyed.From a 2007 article on "N.Y.'s Blood Sport" in the NY Daily News:
The animal shelter, Brooklyn's Home for Unwanted Bullies, talks about the nature of pit bulls:Brownsville and nearby East New York and Bed-Stuy are Ground Zero for New York City's dog-fighting scene, and dogs like this pit bull with one blue eye and one brown eye - Bean hasn't bothered to name her - are more target than deterrent, stolen by the thugs who run the local dog-fighting scene and used for training bait or breeding....
Dog-fighting is a felony in New York State, but enforcement is virtually nonexistent, Massaro (founder of the Spay Neuter Intervention Project, a Queens organization that provides care to junkyard dogs) says, and she hopes Vick's indictment will prompt Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council to make animal protection a citywide priority.
"Dog-fighting is far more common in New York City than most people think, especially in this neighborhood," Massaro says. "I've rescued 1,500 dogs in East New York, Bed-Stuy and Brownsville in the past 10 years, and the majority of those animals were involved in dog-fighting."
Massaro talks about local dog-fight fans who stage matches in nearby abandoned buildings. They see the dogs they train and fight as extensions of themselves. When they win, they feel powerful and lavish their dogs with praise and rewards. When the dogs lose, they abandon or kill the animal, as if they were removing weakness from their own psyches.
These are really good dogs when trained and raised properly.... They can be in homes with children, other dogs and in some cases can be used as service animals. The key to raising a great Pit Bull is proper socialization, proper training, and proper ownership... These animals can be great family dogs.....They are incredibly intelligent and need a lot of attention. If you don't have a lot of time, don't get a Pit Bull.And finally from the North Shore Animal League:
Many pit bulls are raised to be fighting dogs, which is a gruesome and bloody sport that is actually gaining popularity across the country. Dogs are actually raised and trained to be vicious to other dogs (and sometimes people, although this is actually against our nature). Smaller dogs are often used as “bait” and ripped apart in training by the fighting dogs that have been driven into a frenzy. Young pit bull puppies commonly have tires chained around their necks and are forced to run behind moving vehicles to make them “tough”. To condition their jaws for fighting, they are often encouraged to hang by their teeth from tree branches or rafters knowing that if they let go, they will fall far to the ground. And if they lose the fight, angry owners have been known to punish them in horrific ways like dowsing them in gasoline and setting their paws on fire; running them behind cars until they collapse from exhaustion and are then dragged to death; or simply throwing them from a rooftop...On our block I've seen children walking their frolicking pit bull puppy which even jumped up and licked my son's cheek while he was sitting on our stoop (my heart stopped, thank goodness it was just a lick) and young men 'conditioning the jaws' of their grown pit bull by making them hang from a stick at our local playground. However, I've never seen someone willfully mistreating their dogs. I would hope that the majority of pit bull owners are lovers not fighters.
Terrible things are done to pit bulls every day. Things that are too gruesome and heartbreaking to relate here, but you should know that they are happening. Contrary to popular opinion, pit bulls are not the problem; they are trained to be the way we are by people. The real problem lies in the mind-set of people who raise them to be vicious.
