The business of pit bulls

This video details the method of animal management known as BSL.

And after watching the video (please, go back and watch it, it’s important), an animal lover might be asking – how can any group claiming to advocate for the welfare of pets, support animal control officers plucking healthy, friendly dogs being walked by their owners off the street and killing them?

Easy money.

Animal ‘ambulances’ are a modern rebrand of the dog-catchers van, and are used by animal control officers to impound stray and unowned animals. Contrary to the popular notion that shelters are full of surrendered (dumped) animals, 90% of shelter animals are actually brought in by the shelter themselves.

You see, seizing pets is a business

In the case of most pets, they cost you money the longer you hold them – especially if you aren’t able to make back some of that money in adoption fees as in the case of say, feral cats (that is why animal welfare groups often push for the right to kill feral cats on impound). However, if you are a private pounds with a wing of ‘pit bull’ kennels – a section of facilities leased to councils to hold dogs seized under ‘dangerous dog’ laws or ‘pit bull bans’ – you have kennels which can make you money.

Court cases between local council’s and pet owners trying to get their family member back run from a few months to a couple of years.

Privately owned pounds charge between $18 – $30 per day sustenance fee to local councils to hold their ‘pit bulls’ while their owners fight it out in the courts. This is to cover food and ‘standard’ care. The cost dog food is minimal (especially when it is often donated), and any vet fees incurred are passed on as extra charges to council.

If our court case runs say, 12 months and the pound charges $25 per day

Initial impoundment fee
= ~$100
365 days x $25 sustenance fee
= ~ $9,000
Add any extra care over the year (extra vet care, behavioural rehab, additional medications)
= ~ $500

And let’s say the court case was unsuccessful (unsuccessful cases have run on for 2 years or more)

Destruction fee
= ~ $100
Crematorium fee
= ~ $200

… and you have a single kennel which is making you a cool $10,000 pa (- expenses).

A block of say, 80 kennels, could be charged out at around $800,000 pa in sustenance fees and destruction costs, on top of the standard tender to council. It’s like a fast food restaurant upgrading your chips to a large – free money using staff and facilities which were already in existence.

Having animal control officers out on the street, seizing dogs who can take up kennel space for months and years on end makes good financial sense for those who provide pound contracts.

There’s big money in pit bulls.