It's a very controversial idea. A local pit bull rescue group says just like prisoners can be rehabilitated into good citizens....so can pit bulls. Even dogs that seem like bad seeds.
Children have died in their jaws and police have shot them in self defense.
Last March, a Fort Worth woman says she was attacked by a pack of pit bulls. Police say the dogs broke and jumped through a glass window as the victim was walking by with her beagle puppy.
It's one of many reasons why pit bulls haven't exactly won over the public. But a local rescue group says it's retraining and rehabilitating their breed to take a bite out of their bad rap.
"Without us these dogs would be euthanized," said Robyn Slusky, a rescuer and pit bull owner.
But it leaves people asking "Can pit bulls with a broken past re-enter society just like a prisoner would?"
Sherise Davila runs the Heaven Sent Pit bull Rescue. "You start to see a change in the dog," Davila said. "That's what whole program is about."
She pointed to "Pluto" a pit bull that she says came from a violent and abusive home before he was retrained to save lives along the Guadalupe River.
"When he was in the environment, yes, he behaved like that," said Davila.
But not many pits get to walk in his paw prints, because many are not adopted. So the rescue is desperate to expand. It currently has limited space. Their goal is an ambitious one. They hope to raise $100,000 dollars in 45 days to build a pit bull no-kill shelter near Lackland.
(KENS - June 21, 2011)
