Happy Pit Bull

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Their pitch is for the pit bulls

Couple seek to end dog fighting in area

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 23, 2010

Michelle and Jeremy Serocki started out running ads to find play dates for their pit bull.

But a little more than a year later, the thirtysomething couple are aiming to improve the breed’s circumstances through a nonprofit they funded from the sale of their insurance agency.

Their Brew City Bully Club on Saturday hosted a kickoff event at Washington Park in Milwaukee for its most recent effort, called End Dogfighting in Milwaukee.

It’s the third anti-dog fighting campaign in the country and will be modeled on programs in Chicago and Atlanta, Michelle Serocki said.

The goal is to eradicate dog fighting here within 10 years by helping urban kids train their pit bulls in obedience, agility and other skills. The aim also is to encourage the dogs to be the best friend they can be, she said.

It’s a tall order.

Pit bull fighting is rampant and operates at three levels, ranging from informal fights for a $20 prize to organized rings where champions fetch $5,000 stud fees, said Laurie Maxwell, deputy manager of the Humane Society of the United States’ animal cruelty and fighting campaign.

Thirty-one percent of the roughly 5,000 dogs that enter the Milwaukee Domestic Animal Control Commission facility each year are pit bulls, according to the commission’s Web site. Neglected and abused, with battle scars on their faces and front legs, most are never adopted, said Danielle Weidner, Brew City Bully Club’s assistant director.

Pit bulls – crosses between bulldogs and terriers – were bred in the British Isles in the 19th century to have warrior attributes and were brought to the U.S. by immigrants, according to the United Kennel Club Web site.

Now many are chained to trees, fed bumblebees and gunpowder, and deprived of food and water to make them better fighters, said Tio Hardiman, who runs the Chicago campaign to end dog fighting for the Humane Society of the United States.

The Brew City Bully Club’s programs center on adoption and rescue, spaying and neutering, owner support, and education, Weidner said. On Feb. 13, the group will begin a 12-week training class at Washington Park that offers free collars and leashes and techniques for training pit bulls.

“These kids need a bond in their lives. A lot of them are raising themselves, and even the positive reinforcement we’re teaching them to do with their dogs is foreign to them,” Serocki said. “We ask them to tell their dog it’s good. and they look at us like we’re crazy.”

The Serockis’ group hopes eventually to hire kids who’ve been through its program to be advocates who recruit more trainees, similar to programs in other cities.

The Milwaukee Police Department will be working with the program, said Charlotte Brown, community liaison officer and one of three officers who attended Saturday’s event.

Hardiman said he’s trying to help bring to Milwaukee Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who has spoken twice in Chicago at anti-dog fighting events. Vick was convicted for his role in a dog-fighting operation.

As for selling the family insurance agency to fund the nonprofit, Jeremy Serocki shrugs.

“You kind of do what you gotta do,” he said.

For more on Brew City Bully Club and End Dogfighting in Milwaukee, call (262) 533-3057 or go to www.brewcitybullies.org  or www.edfmilwaukee.org