HHPBR does not accept owner surrendered dogs - no exceptions!  Our primary goal is to assist dogs in shelters.  Without us most of these dogs have no chance at all for adoption.  If your dog is spayed / neutered we are willing to assist you in placing him or her yourself.  We are even willing to assist you in finding low cost or no cost spay/neuter options in your area.  However, be aware that it takes an average of 6 to 8 months to place a pit bull in a qualified home. If you are contacting us two days before the dog "must" go then we will not be able to assist you.  

Please remember that you asked to have this dog in your life - he did not ask for you to be his caretaker. He did not ask for you to move, get a new boyfriend/girlfriend, have a baby or decide you didn't have time for him - he didn't intend to become an inconvenience.

Pet friendly housing is available in all price ranges - just contact us, we're willing to assist you in finding it. If he has behavioral problems that your new significant other doesn't care for or that makes him unsuitable for a home with a child - contact us, we'll assist you in finding the resources to retrain him so that he is a suitable companion.

If you simply no longer have time for him or no longer want to own a pet then please have enough compassion for him to put in the time and effort it will take to find him a new home. And we don't mean a "free to good home" add in your local paper - the sad reality of using this route is that he will probably have a short and brutal life. 

If you are able to keep your dog while a new home is found PBRC's website is probably the best way (bar none) to get web exposure for your dog. Not only will the dog been seen by prospective adopters nationwide but you can find some excellent tips on responsible pit bull placement.

Once you have created a PBRC listing for your dog please contact us.  HHPBR can then cross post the dog for additional exposure but remember that we are a very small site. We can probably be of the most assistance to you when it comes to screening and home checking potential adopters. And we can't stress enough just how important it is to thoroughly screen any potential home.  These dogs can draw incredibly irresponsible people as well as those who would like nothing more than a free (or in their minds DISPOSABLE) dog to chain out back until they get tired of it.  It is so very important to remember that a stranger can represent his or her self to be anyone at all via the telephone and the internet - thorough screening and follow ups after adoption are the key to ensuring a successful adoption.  You can also visit PBRC for some excellent tips on screening potential adopters. 

Before you drop him off at your local shelter we ask that you look at some cold hard facts regarding his chances:  

• 75% of shelters will euthanize him immediately because of his breed. They may not understand the breed any better than the general public, they may not want to accept the liability of placing a pit bull in today's world where a scratch given in play can equal an expensive lawsuit, or they may not be able to surrender valuable kennel space on a dog that will take months to place.

• Of the shelters that will provide your dog with a chance at adoption a great many will send him out with little to no screening of applicants. You might as well have placed him via your local newspaper. He may be used as a fighter if he's up to it, or if he shows no fight he'll be used as bait to train the more experienced fighters on - with luck he'll die quickly...... or he may survive maimed and mangled to be used in such a fashion several times. If you dog is a female she may have the "luck" to simply be someone's breeding machine - producing litter after litter of pups (with no regard to her own comfort or well-being) until she is so used up she either dies or is discarded when her broken down body can no longer carry the pups to term.  

• If by some miracle of fate you manage to get your dog into a shelter who will place him and who will screen applicants you're still not home free. Very few shelters can afford to hold a dog for the 6 to 8 months it will take to find him a home. Most public shelters can only offer a dog a couple of weeks at best. It's not their fault - people refuse to have their animals altered and more and more unwanted dogs are born daily. Unlike a private rescue public shelters cannot turn dogs away simply because they have no room and so must euthanize a portion of their population to make room for the dozen new dogs that will come in tomorrow. In the 6 months your dog ties up a kennel they could place a dozen or more other dogs who the general public finds more "acceptable". 

So if you are unable or unwilling to help your dog in 95% of cases his choices will be 1) immediate euthanasia surrounded by strangers who neither know nor care for him 2) a short brutal life as a bait dog or breeding stock or 3) spending a couple of weeks in a scary place, wondering why he has been abandoned only to be euthanized in the end anyway - again among strangers.

No matter how hard it may be on YOU we recommend you consider your dog's fate and have him euthanized at your local veterinarian. Remember that dogs do not fear death - they have no concept of it as we do.  Yes, you may cry and yes, you may feel like crap and yes, it will be VERY hard - but it's the right thing to do. Dropping him off at a public shelter is the easy way out for you - what you need to consider is the easy way out for him. He didn't ask for whatever changes in your life lead to you needing to re-home him - don't make him pay the price that should be yours.  

If you find our opinions harsh then you are welcome to spend some days with us walking the rows of local shelters deciding which one of 20 dogs will be lucky enough to get the single spot we have open. You are welcome to help us choose who will live and who we will leave behind to die or to walk those same shelter rows day after day when all will die because we have no room. You are welcome to help us throw a treat to the bait dog we know was once a really super dog but who is now so physically and mentally scarred that we know he isn't adoptable, you can help us say "sorry, we're out of room" to the dozen emails we get every day from caring shelter workers across the state who have a really super dog in their kennels but no room to give him the time he needs for his new family to find him.

 

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.  

You are his life, his love, his leader. 

He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. 

You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.

  -Anonymous