Shaw Pit Bull Refuge did not set out to become a catch-all for every dog called a pit bull. The work started smaller than that, and over the last several years it narrowed again — before the doors ever closed.

For years, when there was room, Shaw PBR took in abused, abandoned, and neglected pit bulls from across the country. There was never a waiting list. A dog in dire need came first. Intake was decided by the dog’s situation alone, not by how long someone had been asking and not by how easy the case looked on paper. That process brought dogs in from humane societies across the United States, and from shelters in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Mississippi — Oxford, Starkville, West Point, Columbus, and Rankin County, including MARL.

Before a dog arrived, the PitCrew looked at the life it was already in. They spoke with the people who had the dog and asked what was actually wrong. If the problem was behavior, they often found it was the handling, not the animal, and they tried to help the people correct it. If it was medical, they shared what they had seen in similar cases and sent the holders to a local veterinarian. Rescue was the last step, not the first.

When a dog did come in, the first day was an evaluation, head to toe: fleas, ticks, marks, sores, and anything else the coat was hiding. The dog was treated for fleas and ticks, fitted with a collar that actually fit, nails trimmed, and given ivermectin for worms, plus any other medication the case required — penicillin, an anti-inflammatory, eye wash, wound care. It was microchipped and given a DHLPP and bordetella vaccination. Depending on age, one to three additional DHLPP vaccinations followed at four-week intervals. A dog that appeared to have mange was quarantined and treated before it joined the others.

Housing was plain and consistent, and it still is. Each dog lives in a 5-by-20 welded-wire kennel with a pea-gravel floor, a stainless-steel food pan, a dog house, and a water bucket. Food and water go out every day. Feces are removed every day. Water buckets and feed pans are scrubbed weekly. Dog houses are washed and rinsed on a regular cycle, and in the summer the dogs are bathed several times. Once a month they receive heartworm preventive, and treatment for other worms or fleas and ticks if they need it. Every other month they are rechecked: evaluation, nail trim, collar fit. Spay and neuter days were scheduled about once a month. No unaltered dog has ever left Shaw PBR.

Several days a week the dogs go into the play yard, often two at a time. That time is not only exercise. It shows hip trouble and other health issues a kennel exam can miss, and it shows which dogs can share space, what sets them off, and what can be corrected.

In the years before Shaw PBR became a refuge, the mission had already turned toward one kind of dog: game dogs taken from fighting cases, housed here and rehabilitated here. In our experience they are the most misunderstood of the bully breeds, and among the most trustworthy and the most straightforward to rehabilitate. Housing meant a kennel of their own, daily care, and time. Rehabilitation meant the evaluation, the medical work, the play-yard reads, and the slow proof of what a dog would do once that life was behind it. Our heart is with the true pit bull — the dog we want the public to see clearly, and the one we believe can be among the best dogs around.

We have been more cautious about the bigger, heavier, bully-bred mixes so often labeled pit bulls. In our experience, the instability of the breeds mixed in, combined with bulldog power, is a riskier combination than a game pit bull. Those mixes have put the PitCrew, and the public, at greater risk of a bite. We do not promote them, and we chose not to build this refuge around them.

That redirect is finished. Shaw PBR is a refuge for the Adopt-a-Bulls already in our care, and we no longer take new dogs. The daily work has not stopped. The dogs on site are still fed, watered, cleaned, medicated, evaluated, and exercised under our personal care. We do not use foster homes. When a dog is adopted, it leaves spayed or neutered, current on vaccinations including bordetella and rabies, on heartworm and flea-and-tick preventive, treated for heartworms and other parasites, microchipped, and with a fitted Max and Neo collar and leash and a personal handmade blanket and pillow. The adoption fee is $100.

See also "What Shaw PBR Can NOT Do"

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