Pit Bull Rescue

Kathryn and one of her pit bulls, Kevin.

Promoting Safety Through Education

ARFF MO believes that all dogs have the potential to bite and to focus on one breed will not keep a community safer. Dog problems are usually problems with irresponsible owners and are not related to the breed of the dog. To single out a specific breed as dangerous or vicious removes responsibility from the dog owner, which is where it belongs. It punishes responsible dog owners due to expensive and unkind restrictions placed on ownership.

ARFF MO focuses its efforts on spaying/neutering, anti-dog fighting, anti-chaining, and training issues to carry out our mission and achieve our goals. ARFF MO accepts and appreciates any and all community input into ways to solve animal problems.

Pit Bull bans do not keep citizens safe from vicious dogs as all dogs have the potential to bite. If you push a dog past it's bite threshold, you will get bitten. As in most things in life, quick fixes to complicated problems do not work. ARFF MO believes that it is inhumane that thousands of innocent dogs are killed every year based on their looks, not their actions. Just as one cannot judge a book by it's cover, one cannot judge a dog by looks alone.

All dogs should be judged as individuals. ARFF MO has done extensive DNA testing on many of our "death row" dogs. These are dogs that were labeled as pit bulls in local dog pounds and deemed as vicious and unadoptable based on their looks alone. Pit bull bans include puppies and sadly they are placed on death row, too. Our rescued dogs come in all shapes and sizes. Some have big heads, some stocky bodies, and some are brindle in color. We thought that some of our dogs did not look at all like what we thought a pit bull should look like. We decided to do DNA testing to see if our dogs were indeed pit bulls. To be a true pit bull, a dog would need to have DNA from the American Staffordshire Terrier, or the Staffordshire Bull Terrier present. Our results are truly remarkable and they are posted on this site. Most of our dogs are mutts and many of them have a breed other than pit bull as their predominant lineage. Some of our dogs are purebred dogs, and some of our dogs have no pit bull at all present. Those dogs that have any amount of pit bull present no matter how small would still be killed based on how pit bull bans are written. The law includes "mixes".

We have worked very hard to educate the public about the true nature of pit bull type dogs. We have had some success from our efforts! Boonville's pit bull ban was overturned in 2015 and Fayette and New Franklin's in 2016. Glasgow, MO soon followed and overturned their ban also. This was a team effort that required a lot of public participation in attending City Council meetings. We still need pit bull advocates that are willing to speak for our dogs that have no voice with the legislators. There are still many cities in MO that have not repealed their bans. ARFF MO is not stopping our efforts until all dogs are treated equally. We will continue to take the fight back to the legislators that passed BSL (breed specific legislation) which bans innocent family pets.These laws result in a death sentence for thousands of family pets every year. Insurance companies and landlords that discriminate against family pets need to hear from you too! If you have a Pit Bull that is being targeted or are just a dog lover, we need your support! Call the legislators that passed the laws and tell them how you feel about their actions. Vote them out during the next election cycle or shop around for an insurance company that accepts your dog. Come join our ARFF MO Pit Crew team!

Ban the DEED, Not the BREED!!!

A LITTLE ABOUT ARff mo Pit Bull Rescue

Animal Responsibility for Fayette Missouri (ARFF MO) was created in 2009 by Kathryn Ward and her daughter Janis Bultemeier when their hometown of Fayette MO passed a Pit Bull ban. Being compassionate about the breed and knowing the discrimination that they were about to face in Fayette, ARFF MO was created. ARFF MO is a 501 c3 Non-Profit organization saving one pit bull at a time. ARFF MO is based out of Fayette, MO.

MISSON:

Our mission is to promote public safety through education about responsible pet care as an alternative to banning breeds of dogs. Our organization focuses on education, legislation, and rescuing to accomplish our mission.

VISION:

We envision a community with fewer dog bites and attacks, fewer unwanted pets, and a place were citizens are allowed to own whatever breed of dog they wish within the city limits of their hometowns.