America's blocky dogs, still faithfully reflecting our times
 Did you know? Dogs described by their families as pit bulls have mainstreamed into much of America, including and especially homes in the SF Bay Area. (
Pit bulls: Top five most common dog type in CA and US). Breed specific legislation is on the
decline all over the US as city leaders catch up with
contemporary science and expert opinion on dogs.*
Overall,
adoptions from animal shelters and rescue groups are stronger than we've seen in all our years doing this work, and everyone seems to know one or more people who boast pit bulls as cherished family companions.
An unhappy coincidence
Here's the rub: The widespread acceptance of pit bulls arrived at nearly the same time that
affordable housing shortages started choking our cities. Talk about bad timing. Lack of housing continues to be the biggest obstacle to keeping these popular pets safe and out of animal shelters. Our shelters started reporting severe overcrowding
in 2015 and 2016, and inquiries from dog owners facing crisis come to us almost daily. To be honest, the animal welfare world was caught off guard by this trend, which started with the foreclosure crisis a few years back. Families have very few options when they lose housing as most strategies to tackle the challenge are focused on keeping shelter dogs sane during the stress of overcrowding (play groups) and trying to attract new families with better housing options.
Will it get better? CA homeowners got the green light to build 'granny units' with far fewer restrictions in '16. Good news, since single unit landlords have traditionally been more dog friendly than those who own large multi-unit properties. Waiting is hard, but it's worth watching the trends as other solutions surface for creating affordable housing.
* Readers should note that San Francisco has not budged on its discriminatory law despite the fact that their city shelter is still full of pit bulls. What do you think about this?
 Responding to challenge
1. STUDY, UNDERSTAND, SHARE. To understand the landscape, we surveyed
landlords to get their feedback on renting to pet owners. What we learned was poured into a new education strategy including
better tools to assist dog owners during their search. Our animated
video (funded by
Animal Farm Foundation ) rotates weekly through housing ads on Craigslist
in English and Spanish. Readers are more than welcome to share this info widely.
2. SUPPORT. Helping dog owners stay committed to their dogs when they face hard times is one of the hardest jobs we've taken on, but we're stubborn and are getting better at offering realistic support and forging solutions on a case-by-case basis.
Examples.
Nut Truckin' ~ The numbers are adding up
 We had a gloriously busy year bringing free and pay-what you-can resources to communities in the SF East Bay. Our volunteers, staff and partner vets from Well Pet Vet Clinic provided:
- Guidance, training and resources to
600+ families during ten day-long events.
- Hundreds of vaccines and microchips to dogs of every breed
- 192 spay/neuter surgeries were performed either during the events or in between events with vouchers. The bulk of the surgeries go to blocky dogs.
It's expensive, but worth it. Total cost to accomplish 2016's outreach goals:
$55,700
Enjoy photos from some of the events c/o Kathy Kinnear
- During one of three events at Well Pet Vet Clinic
- NIMBY artist collective in East Oakland
- New Life Christian Membership Church in Concord
- Contra Costa Animal Services (where we borrowed their clinic and absorbed their wait list)
- East Oakland's Phight Club
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We offer several ways to donate. Please consider giving a tax
deductible gift to help us push this boulder up the hill in 2017
for the dogs and the people who call them family. Thank you!
EIN Number - 94-3397172
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Rescued dogs. Where do they come from?
Thirty four rescued dogs moved through our program in 2016. Five dogs came to us as unclaimed strays or from families in crisis, four dogs came to us from Hayward Animal Services, thirteen came from Contra Costa Animal Services, four came from Antioch Animal Services, one came from Silicon Valley Animal Services, four came from Berkeley Animal Care Services, and three came from Yolo County Animal Services.
 Notable rescues in 2016
A small group of dogs whose former owner was being investigated for felony dog fighting found help in 2016. Sadly, he also has a history of attempting to steal his dogs back, so we were unable to house them at the Rescue Barn, but
Prairie Pit Bull Rescue in Alberta, Canada made room and we happily drove them north. Bravo to PPBR for finding homes for all three dogs, and to
Idaho Humane Society for assisting with the transfer. (
News from the transfer) Right:
Baby, looking dignified.
Another celebrated rescue/transfer lit up the internet when '
Meatball' was saved. We're so grateful to
Balanced Bullies Rehabilitation and Rescue for taking him on and finding him a new home.
Special Needs, Special Dogs
Ping was a starvation/neglect case who learned to enjoy dogs while at the Rescue Barn before finding her new family. '
The Elves' were skin and bones when they arrived. They charmed us all as they recovered.
Puppy Mac was found anemic and weak on some railroad tracks - one of dozens saved by Good Samaritans in 2016.
Mila's situation broke our hearts when her family fell on hard times. She's since found a new home.
Spotty and Bunny both came to us to recover from mange and (Bunny) an eye surgery.
Duzi showed up with heart worm and needed some quiet TLC.
Chet was an escape artist at his shelter, so came for safe-keeping until he found home. Bermudian refugee
Dayo found his new home this year. So many more stories and successes!
Life at the Rescue Barn
 Seasonal videos helped viewers enjoy our dogs, and in return, they attracted great adopters. Win-Win!
Take a look:
Home Improvements: Our Rescue Barn dogs are cuckoo for the 500sf swatch of artificial turf installed in front of the barn this summer. During our CA drought, it's always green and always lush. What took us so long to bite the bullet and do this?
Above: Cooper says 'Yumm.'
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 Looking to 2017
More, More, More!
In the new year, we would love to see a repeat of everything accomplished in 2016, but turned up a notch.
More spay/neuter surgeries, more networking to help the dogs at risk and more problem solving for KeepEm Home successes.
Online. We
plan to update our website in 2017 so seekers can find quicker answers, and we'll be finishing a video thanks to a gift from the Unexpected Pit bull Calendar that will offer practical info to help increase owner retention.
 Stories from Our Streets - A Photo/Education Project. We're so excited about this. Prints of Kathy Kinnear's wonderful images enjoyed their first audience from Nov-Dec '16 (Link) and will be traveling around to different venues as a way to amplify discussions concerning the human-animal bond and dog owner support. Plus, the photos give us a great excuse for more parties. Win-Win!
Landlords, Watch Out! We left property owners in peace for much of 2016 after percolating the fantastic feedback they kindly offered, but we'll be back at them in 2017 to enlist their guidance in creating ongoing solutions to pet friendly housing.
More Pit Ed Camps. We did three 'camps' in 2016 with animal care workers from North Carolina, New Jersey, Canada and San Jose, CA. More are lining up to join us in 2017.
... And that's just a start.
Please join us as we power forward with brainstorming around our current challenges and - if you can - give generously so we can continue to respond to the core problems that affect pit bulls and the human/animal bond both in our local community and around the country.
Help us bring the dogs
and their families
to a better place in this brave new era of compassion in action.
We were proud to be ranked nationally as the number one high-impact nonprofit for Local A
nimal Welfare, Rights, & Protection for
Guidestar's Philanthropedia
. What an honor for the dogs to have had a panel of experts see the value of this work and put BADRAP at the top of this prestigious list.
From all of us at BADRAP, Happy 2017.
Thank you for being such an important part of this work!
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We offer several ways to donate. Please consider making a tax
deductible gift to help us push this boulder up the hill in 2017
for the dogs and the people who call them family. Thank you!
EIN Number - 94-3397172
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