Pit bull rescue is something near and dear to my heart. Between me and my wife, we’ve rescued well over a dozen stray and abandoned cats and dogs from the East Austin neighborhoods where we’ve lived over the years.
On one occasion, we found a Pit Bull/ Lab mix wandering a warehouse complex North of San Antonio. We took him in, and tried to find his owner, to no avail. So, we got his shots up to date, and eventually decided to keep him in our small house…with no yard. That was a big mistake. This VERY energetic and affectionate dog was just too much for our meager living space, and our very, very put-out cats. BUT- certainly we could find a home for Magneto, right?
READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!
After a few desperate weeks of searching for someone who would take him in, we eventually gave up, and decided to get him into a no-kill shelter, where he could be taken care of until someone came along with the space to adequately house him. Well, come to find out- there is no ‘no-kill’ shelter in Austin that would take in a Pit-Bull, mixed with anything. The only shelter that WOULD take him in was the city-run Town Lake Animal Center. At TLAC, if an animal isn’t picked up w/in a short amount of time, they have to put them to sleep. And that’s not from lack of caring- the people at TLAC genuinely care about the animals that come through there- but the lack of space, time, resources, funds- mandates that dozens and dozens of animals are put down almost daily.
So, we were in a tough spot- no-one would take Magneto in, he was way more dog than we could handle, and the only other option was to put him somewhere that would definitely lead to his death. So, we did what we had to- we lied.
We found an animal shelter in a town South of Austin, that was no-kill, and took in Pit-Bulls. But, we had to be residents of the town. Or…at least the dog had to be. So we lied about where we found Magneto, renamed him the much more friendly ‘Banjo’ and took him in. That place was amazing- they had his photo up on their site, and in a few short weeks, his status was changed to ‘adopted.’ We had done it.
Now, my story is not unique at all. Pit Bulls suffer unfairly from the stigma of being violent, so they’re notoriously hard to adopt out to caring families. And unfortunately, a small portion of the people who do seek them out do so for illegal fighting. Pits are bred in puppy mills while our shelter system has to put them to death by the thousands each year. It’s truly a sad, sad situation.
So, when Hello Bully, a Pit Bull rescue in Pittsburgh put out a call for art donations for their yearly fund-raiser, I decided to do them one better, and create for them a print to promote the event, and for them to sell at the gala as well. I straight up donated 50 prints to them (the White Dog/ Blue Background print- only available through them) and I also made 3 different colorways to sell through Nakatomi, with 50% of the proceeds going back to them.
Visit HelloBully.com, and check out the good work they’re doing to raise awareness, spay and neuter, and find homes for these great and loving dogs.
These 18×24 prints are available in 3 separate colorways (with a 4th colorway exclusive to the shelter) signed and numbered in different editions. Up for sale right now at my webstore, www.NakatomiInc.com in the Art Prints section of the store.
-tim doyle