The Lily Tomlin quote, "I said, 'Somebody should do something about that" Then I realized I am somebody," describes perfectly the inception of Nashville PITTIE.
Nashville PITTIE was founded by Jana Mandes, a lifelong animal advocate. Jana has been a pit bull advocate for much of her life, with an inherent love of animals and a commitment to making a difference for pit bulls and the communties in which they live. Frustrated with always being on the "defense" and seeing the suffering they endure, we decided to take action to improve these animals' lives as well as the public perception of the dogs that we know as intelligent, playful, and loyal family pets.
Nashville PITTIE is not a rescue in the traditional sense. We noticed a trend in Nashville's animal welfare community where a lot of wonderful caring folks opened their hearts, homes, and wallets to rescue efforts and almost immediately become ovewhelmed with pleas help. Too often they find themselves in a vicious cycle of having more animals in need than there is help available.
Nashville PITTIE's aim is to get ahead of the issue and prevent homelessness, neglect, and abuse before it happens. The best way to achieve that is through community education and promotion of spay/neuter programs.
Nashville PITTIE's Programs
Nashville PITTIE's aim is to restore the image of pit bull type dogs, through education, promoting responsible pet ownership, and spay/neuter.
Education and Advocacy
As a means to educate the general public on the perceptive of pit bulls being ultimate family companions and services animals, Nashville PITTIE created an Ambassador Program to bring pit bulls into the public eye through social walks, attending public events, such as Nashville's Earth Day Festival, and Nashville's Cherry Blossom Festival. As well as involvement in other, public projects like the Impression-a-bull Photo Project and the Nashville Christmas Parade.
Also under the Advocacy umbrella, Nashville PITTIE will organize events such as the Annual PITTIEFEST, as well as participate in other events by hosting an educational booth, operated by volunteers.
Rescue
While we initially hesitated to add rescue into our focuses, we could not ignore the abundant number of animals in immediate need of a home. To ensure our other objectives do not suffer as a result of our growth into rescue, it was imperative that we stay balanced in our efforts and only commit to a pet in need when we have an available foster home that is a good fit for the pup, and the financial resources to ensure adequate care for all pets in our foster program. We strive to locate quality foster homes as our adoption program is growing.
Community Initiatives
Nashville PITTIE's Initiatives include speaking to schools and youth groups, providing resources to help families keep their pets in their homes, promoting spay/neuter as the solution to the extreme population of neglected and unwanted pit bulls, and providing free spay/neuter to those in need.