by Marcus Washington
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - They're known as dangerous and vicious, but many say pit bulls have gotten a bad rap. Now one woman's attempt to save one's life could mean a death sentence.
It was this face that caught the attention of a woman in a Nashville parking lot.
She was visiting from Pennsylvania so thinking the friendly pit bull mix was a stray she took it to Metro Nashville Animal Care and Control Services.
"This out-of-towner being a good Samaritan and tried to save this dog saw it in the cold and thought, oh I can take it to a shelter. "(She) took it to a shelter and as a result that dog, unless its owner came forward, is sentenced to death," said Tamasine Singer with Middle Tennessee Pet Resource Center.
What she didn't know is only the owner of a pit bull breed can rescue the animal because policy does not allow that particular breed to be adopted by anyone else under any circumstances.
"If somebody was to bring one in, a stray pit bull, then by state law we hold it three business days. That gives the owner time enough to come look for it and hopefully find it. After that third day it is humanely euthanized," said Billy Briggs with Metro Nashville Animal Care and Control Services.
Briggs says it's a policy that's hard for animal control workers to deal with daily.
"We rotate the euthanasia process because of that. You get one person back there doing it for a week or two weeks in a row, it wears on you," said Biggs.
Here in Middle Tennessee there are few rescue places that accept or can house pit bulls.
Singer says while there are more stray pit bulls than resources, this is the time to push for change in legislation by having conversations with state representatives.
"Regarding really looking at the policy of breed discrimination or BSL as it's known, Breed Specific Legislation, we really need to focus on temperament testing and looking at each dog as an individual," said Singer.
Right now many of these dogs face a death sentence for nothing more than existing.
Briggs says, "All pit bulls are not bad. Unfortunately our policy is we don't adopt them out."
NewsChannel5 was not able to find the particular pit bull that was rescued on Saturday, but according to the policy, that dog will not face euthanizing until after Wednesday.
It's also hard for the rescue resources to help right now because they are overcrowded.
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