Cappuccino, a stray found in Jackson Ward, was adopted by Quirk Hotel General Manager Morgan Slade and serves as the pet-friendly hotel’s “Barketing Director.”
By Claire Fortier
PHOTO BY JAY PAUL
PITY THE PITTIE
Richmond’s most popular pup is also America’s most misunderstood
A time bomb that explodes without warning! Beloved! Reviled! Sweet! Fierce! Wouldn’t hurt a fly!
For more than a century, pit bulls have been at the center of a bi er debate between those who love them and those who loathe them.
“ ey’re adorable,” says Sarah Babcock, chief of education and training at the Richmond SPCA. “ ey are big, block-headed, derpy dogs that are generally very loyal and very willing to do whatever you want them to do.”
Bullies may be beloved by some in the River City, but they also have detractors, who cite bite statistics and tragic a acks as reasons to ban the breed. e dogs have starred in commercials and been forced to fight.
So, are pit bulls popular or pariahs?
TOP DOGS
Pit bulls, or dogs that are broadly referred to as pit bulls, are one of the most popular pets in Richmond. “ ey have a big fan club,” Babcock says. “I know that’s true in Richmond and has been for quite a while. To hear that they are at an all-time high wouldn’t surprise me.”
At Richmond Animal Care & Control, the city’s animal shelter, Director Christie Peters says the dog population “never drops below 80% pi ies.” She isn’t sure why the breed is so prominent here, “just a general theory that pits are more prevalent in urban communities.”
Pi ies are definitely popular nationwide. “A recent analysis of over 200K veterinary interactions found that dogs labeled as ‘pit bulls’ are the most popular breed in at least 21 states and the most popular dogs in the U.S. overall,” says the nonprofit research and advocacy group PitbullHero. “Additionally, veterinary data from Banfield [Pet Hospital, which has more than 1,000 locations nationwide] indicated that the population of pit bulls has increased while the popularity of other large breeds has declined.” According to the group, the population of German shepherds has decreased 7% and that of Labrador retrievers has gone down 17%, while the number of pit bull-type dogs has increased 24%.
Or has it?
“We have always had a number of pit bull-type dogs in our shelter,” says Richmond SPCA CEO Tamsen Kingry. However, precise numbers are impossible to pin down for two reasons: Pit bulls aren’t actually a breed, and people are bad at identifying them.
Kingry explains, “‘Pit bull’ refers to a type of dog rather than a breed,” in much the same way “hound” refers to a type of dog but encompasses more than 30 breeds. e American Kennel Club recognizes numerous “bully” breeds, which it describes as having “solidly built, wide bodies and short
coats … large square heads, short muzzles, short triangular ears, and powerful jaws.”
Further, Babcock says, “I really think there are a large number of breeds that people are quick to a ach [the pit bull] label. ere has been some good research done on identification, and it shows we humans are pre y bad at labeling pit bulls.”
Only 33% to 48% of dogs that were visually identified as pit bulls had any pit bull DNA, according to two studies done in 2009 and 2015 and published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science and the Veterinary Journal, respectively. Even more surprising is that, according to the studies, many dogs that have pit bull-type DNA were not visually identified as such.
“We know that visually identifying a breed is very inaccurate,” says Dr. Amy Learn, chief of medicine for Richmond’s
Animal Behavior Wellness Center. “ ere have been stories in the press or reports of di erent aggression incidents for dogs in the past that we o en mislabel as pit bulls. at is categorizing a lot of dogs because they happened to be very muscular and have short fur and big, blocky heads.”
e bully umbrella includes numerous breeds descended from bulldog blends: the bullmasti ; the bull terrier (think Bullseye, the Target mascot, and Bud Light’s Spuds MacKenzie); the Staffordshire Bull Terrier; and the larger American Sta ordshire Terrier, also called the American Pit Bull Terrier (like Pete the Pup of “Li le Rascals” fame). e AKC classifies the American bulldog in a developmental category and not eligible for registration, while the United Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1999 and added a further variant, the American Bully, in 2013.
Bully breeds account for up to 80% of dogs at Richmond SPCA and RACC.
I feel this massive exhale,” they explain. “I get to lock in and enjoy it.”
Wending through the streets of Oregon Hill, the parade is reminiscent of a New Orleans Second Line procession and a Day of the Dead ritual. Annual themes have included 2015’s “Funeral March of Individual and Collective Depression,” 2017’s “Funeral for the Confederacy,” and 2019’s eerily prescient “Funeral March For Life As We Had Wished It.”
The parade has never asked for permission, which provided some challenges in the first few years. During the fifth or sixth event, Lamberta recalls, an officer approached them for information and another o cer intervened with, “It’s the Halloween parade,” as though everyone should know.
Boldly carrying anti-establishment messages, the parade champions making life be er for everybody, but it’s also a joyous Halloween mixture of Richmond elements: a punk gothic celebration with blasting brass and strumming bluegrass, twirling winged fairies, gamboling costumed characters familiar and original, glowing bicyclists, amazing stilt walkers, enormous puppets manipulated with rods, and vehicles tricked out for a treat of music and merriment. Oregon Hill’s tree-humped herringbone sidewalks crowd with excited spectators.
Lamberta, now a mother and a registered nurse, didn’t foresee the numbers of either participants or observers, nor anticipate the eagerness with which the neighborhood
embraced the event. “I’ve had people come up to me and say they moved into Oregon Hill because of the parade,” Lamberta says.
While living in New York but contemplating the decision to leave a life they loved, Lamberta went to Bread & Puppet founder Peter Schumann for advice. “‘You will go home, and you will do what you do here, there,’” Lamberta recalls him counseling. “It was an a-ha moment … and I love, love, love Halloween.”
Around the same time, a longtime friend, teacher and artist, Happyanne All the Saints Kuhn — a daughter of the locally renowned Happy the Artist — died of cancer at age 25. “She symbolized a person with a pure, sweet, generous disposition,” Lamberta recounts. “I felt I had a lot to learn from her.”
Raised Catholic but not “aligned with all that,” Lamberta nonetheless considered the real persons behind exalted martyrdom and the ceremonies of remembrance. us came the name of the company and the nature of the Halloween parade.
All the Saints eater uses crowdfunding to support the technical and security aspects of the event, which includes cycling “ushers” to keep side streets clear. “We learned to have a vehicle at the back to protect us,” Lamberta reflects. “ e first year, a driver tried to run through. It’s a scary world — there’s no denying that. But that’s one reason the art is so important: It keeps us grounded and fighting back.”
The All the Saints Theater Company Halloween Parade traverses Oregon Hill on Oct. 31. It embarks from Monroe Park at 7 p.m. and ends at Pleasants Park.
