Tails wagging and a whole lot of pit bull lovin’ in downtown Lancaster. The county’s Humane League held its annual ‘Pitties in the Park.’ An event meant to erase some of the stigmas that people have about pit bulls.
Food, games and music — as our four-legged friends got a little extra attention. But this time the League is making sure it’s positive attention — hoping to better educate people about the breed.
“We should be a little less quick to judge. Judge the deed not the breed,” said Julia Hollinger, a Humane League volunteer.
Earlier this month, a Lancaster City police officer shot and killed an unattended pit bull even though the dog wasn’t attacking anyone. The shooting outraged many especially pit bull owners. Since then State Representative Kevin Schreiber, of York County, has pushed for legislation in order to properly train officers so incidents like that don’t happen again.
“I think that would be great. I think any profession where we’re coming into contact with dogs, police should be a little bit more well-trained. You know obviously breed identification could be a little difficult but at least if there’s some more training maybe we could avoid incidents like that,” said Hollinger.
The Humane League is also encouraging people to adopt pit bulls.
“They can be absolute great dogs. Pit bulls are generally a bit more active so they benefit from an active home but they’re also really people focused, they love attention, they love to snuggle and they can be lazy in the house,” said Laura Vinroe of The Humane League of Lancaster.
