The primary cause of death for pit bulls, and for a great many other dogs in this country, is people. We are the problem. The dogs are not. They are not dying because they are pit bulls. They are dying because humans breed them without restraint, most often for money, and then discard them when the puppy is no longer convenient. Pit bulls remain among the most common dogs in shelters. Every one of them was a puppy someone wanted.

Puppies are easy to want. Adult pit bulls are not easy to keep. They are strong-willed, physically powerful, and burdened with a public reputation that landlords, insurers, and housing associations act on. That reputation was built by people, not by the breed. Puppies grow up. If you are not prepared to invest time, training, and a permanent home for the life of the dog, you should not own one. Shaw PBR does not place an unaltered dog, and a dog adopted from us always has a place to return. That does not make a casual adoption responsible.

A glance at the local paper, The Packet, or Tradewinds shows how many puppies are for sale, most of them from backyard breeders. Very few of those puppies will stay in the first home for life. Anyone in rescue has seen the other end of that sale: adult pit bulls waiting, all of them once advertised as cute. They are produced for a quick return. Temperament and inherited health get little attention. A female is bred to a male a friend owns, the money is split, and the puppies leave intact. Most of them will have litters of their own. The circle is not accidental. It is a human choice, repeated.

The people who keep it going are easy to name. Owners who do not spay or neuter and end up with an “accidental” litter. Owners who allow just one litter first. Breeders who sell puppies intact. Breeders who ignore temperament and genetic defects. Rescuers who rehome a dog without altering it. That list includes private owners, backyard breeders, show kennels, and people who call themselves rescuers. If you do not care where the puppies go, who takes them, or how many already exist, you do not care about overpopulation.

There are more puppies than there are people willing to train them, live with them, and keep them. Adult dogs die in shelters. Puppies do too. The shelters are not the cause, and the dogs are not the cause. Shelters make hard decisions about animals dumped at the door. They did not decide to breed again. They did not send puppies out intact so each one could produce another unwanted litter. They did not give up on a litter, sell the puppies, and dump the mother when she was no longer useful. They are limited by money and by staff, and they are asked to absorb a problem people created.

The useful work now is education and prevention. There is no good reason left to breed into this surplus. Money is still the usual motive. If you care about dogs, and about this breed in particular, do not add to it.

• Do not breed your dog. Have it altered. Low-cost clinics exist for this.
• Do not buy from a backyard breeder, or from a kennel turning out litter after litter. Stud fees are part of that production. Do not fund them.
• Learn the breed before you get one, so you are not the person who returns a dog for being too active, too strong, or unable to go everywhere you go.
• Take a dog from a reputable rescue or shelter instead of buying one.
• Do not follow the fad. Blue coats and oversized, bulky frames are an unhealthy fashion. Temperament matters more than coat or nose color.
• If a friend wants to breed, take them through a shelter. The result of that litter is already in the kennels.
• If you rehome a dog, alter it first. Shaw PBR will not let an unaltered dog leave. That rule exists because the alternative is another litter.

The dogs are not too many by nature. We made them too many. The fix is on our side of the leash.