PINUPS for PITBULLS:a look at

DEIRDRE ‘Little Darling’

Cynthia Church

ENGL 2010-055

Profile Paper-Final Portfolio

04/27/2014

DEIRDRE ‘Little Darling’

Breed-specific legislation, or “BSL,” is

every animal-lover’s nightmare. For the

inexperienced, BSL is the banning of certain

dogs due to how “dangerous” they are based

on recorded animal attacks

(americanhumane). Some places only put

restrictions on specific breeds-

owners may be required to muzzle the dog in public, or keep the dog contained in severe

conditions (keep the dog in a kennel, keep them on a short leash, etc.). Some places, however,

will place a ban on a specific breed altogether. Prince George’s County in Maryland, for

example, has banned the pit bull breed outright. When found in the banned area, the animal is

taken away from their family, often stripped of the chance of being reunited and usually held in

unsuitable conditions until they are euthanized. And this is not a rare occurrence- the federation

has reported that BSL has been implemented in no less than 17 states.

Meet Deirdre ‘Little Darling’ Franklin. She has been animal lover since she was young,

and she can’t fathom why certain animal lives were valued over others. Before she was even a

teenager, she started regularly studying animal rights pamphlets and literature to try and

understand the logical argument for why it would be ok to test animals for makeup, perform

scientific or medical experiments on animals, or other equally brutal activities. She shortly

became an animal advocate as a teenager to argue against these types of actions.

Not long after high school, Deirdre began volunteering weekly at an animal refuge

center. When she began, she never dreamt she would fall for the pit bull breed. While

volunteering one day, a female pit bull mix was dropped at the front door. Deirdre immediately

fell in love with her sweet demeanor. Unfortunately, the refuge she was working for had a

policy to euthanize pit bulls. They reminded her of the policy and that she would be unable to

adopt the good-natured dog. She became heartbroken knowing she couldn’t do anything to help

this dog. She tried looking up other rescue agencies to take in the dog, but her search was

unsuccessful. After this heart-wrenching experience, she decided to adopt a pit bull from another

agency. She named her Carla Lou (gamedogguardian).

This experience opened Deirdre’s eyes to the world of breed-specific legislation. She

now shows her support for pit bulls in a very unique and successful way. She is dismayed that

rescue shelters will euthanize healthy, friendly dogs because of their breed, and has taken a

stand. In 2005, she founded and became CEO of Pinups for Pitbulls Inc. She uses her

experience in modeling and fine arts to create calendars that portray pinup girls with their pit

bulls. With her extremely detailed work, her calendars portray how the pit bull used to be

perceived in a whole other era. Today, her company is known internationally, with supporters in

over 20 states. It exists today as a not-for-profit organization that strives to educate people about

the history of pit bulls and their true nature. To date, they have raised over $20,000 for their

cause.

Her work to end breed bans doesn’t end there. While she was working toward her

Master’s degree in Science, she centered her master’s thesis on the provability of BSL. Entitled

Public Policy: Community Safety Through Breed Bans?, the 63-page document covers breed

bans from professional and animal welfare groups, as well as the science that supports breed

neutral laws. She took every avenue she could find to logically work with science-based facts.

She discovered that she could not find a single medical, law, or veterinary journal that could

prove that BSL works. Her thesis states that every dog is an individual, and context is everything

in a dog’s world.

When looking at BSL advocates, she has found that they argue with opinions and feelings

rather than logic. Her conclusion is that a person’s bias is generated by fear. It is often not fear

learned from a previous experience (although sometimes it is), but rather fear learned from the

media. The media will take a story about a person being bitten by a dog, but only tell the

traumatic experience while omitting the context. For example, let’s say a two-year-old wandered

into a neighbor’s yard and was bitten by their dog. When the dog bit the child, the dog is

statistically either unneutered, always chained in the back yard and never taught to socialize,

abused, and/or fearful due to extreme punishment training. When you look at the abysmal

treatment the dogs in these stories received, why are we blaming the dog and not the caretaker?

Where are parents of the two-year-old and why are they allowing their child to wander around

unsupervised?

In her thesis, she also discusses an instance where some cities put a ban on pit bulls, and

then later bragged about how they eliminated pit bull bites. She questions why they wouldn’t

mention the other dog breeds that became the main biting dog in their community. When you

remove an entire breed of dog, then another dog must take its place. Is your next step going to be

getting rid of that breed of dog too? In another scenario, if there are a lot of Chihuahuas in an

area, wouldn’t the likelihood of that dog becoming the number one dog biter increase? As a

solution, she suggests that rather than banning an entire breed of dog, the owner should take

other steps in their dog’s training-such as enforcing leash and tethering laws, and focusing on

education-not only for the owner, but for people interacting with the dog as well.

There has been at least one positive step toward ending Breed Specific Legislation. In

August 2013, the White House declared their opposition toward BSL. President Obama declared

that research on BSL has been largely ineffective and a waste of public resources. Twelve years

ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researched the previous 20 years of

data pertaining to dog bites, and discovered that it is nearly impossible to determine bite rates for

specific breeds-making BSL virtually redundant (newsfeed).

Deirdre is happy to hear this positive support from the White House and hopes this

message will be helpful in the long run, but is wary of the short-term effects. She believes that

the citizens of this country are very biased toward political affiliations, and that it is difficult to

diminish previous prejudices toward certain breeds of dogs. She stresses the importance of

education and appreciates the White House’s emphasis on actual methods rather than the

symbolic method that breed bans portray.

Since Deirdre started her company and began speaking out about the injustice of BSL,

she has been happy to see the dramatic change of the public’s view toward pit bulls. Even in the

last nine years, she has noticed a significant (happy) difference in the attitude people portray

toward pit bull breeds. While she knows it will be a long journey, she looks forward to the day

when her work is no longer needed, and people can stop seeing dogs as “just dogs.”

 

Works Cited

American Humane Association

<http://www.americanhumane.org/animals/stop-animal-abuse/fact-sheets/breed-specific-legislation.html>

Game Dog Guardian

<http://gamedogguardian.com/help-people-help-dogs/owner-profiles/deirdre-aka-little-darling#sthash.ERDJeHcv.dpuf>

Pit Bull Pride

<http://www.icontact-archive.com/uBzjhl_dSsqAwCbDemPAXRutuHPGdLWe?w=3>

Obama Blasts Legislation Targeting Specific Dog Breeds August 21, 2013

<http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/21/obama-blasts-legislation-targeting-specific-dog-breeds/>