Game Changer Saves the Dogs Others Don't Want

 

We call them "Game Changers" — the exemplary, hardworking individuals who have gone the extra mile to promote animal welfare all around the world. Every week, we feature a special Game Changer, so if you know someone in your community who deserves this award, nominate them and help us get the word out about the magnificent work they do! Click here.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jason Flatt, founder of Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue in Georgia. He is taking on work that no one else will and in so doing making a profound difference for the lives of pit bulls in need. Jason was nominated for a Healthy Pets Game Changer Award by Raphael S., and shared that his love for the breed started from birth.

“I was born into a house with a pit bull. My first dog was a pit bull, my second dog was a pit bull mix, a rescue and dogs were family. I was an animal lover from an early age. If there is one thing that my parents instilled in me it was that animals were family,” he said.

But it wasn’t until a life-changing event — the death of his brother in 2005 — that he ended up centering his life’s work around saving pit bulls. “I fell into a deep funk and nothing really mattered,” Jason said, until a 5-week-old puppy saved him:

“The only thing that really brought me out of the funk was a little pit bull puppy that I took in, a little 5-week-old pit bull puppy named Angelo. He gave me a reason, and I promised him that I would pay it back and I was going to go get him a friend at the pound.

I had moved to Georgia and I walked into one of the pounds down here in inner city, Atlanta, and there were beautiful pit bulls in there and I wanted to adopt one. Every pit bull had an X on its kennel and I asked somebody who worked there, ‘What's with the X's? I'd like to adopt that dog.’ They said, ‘We don't adopt pit bulls out. They're all being euthanized tomorrow.’"

Saving the Dogs That Nobody Else Wanted

When Jason realized that 135 pit bulls and pit bull mixes were being euthanized every month just at one Atlanta animal shelter, he sprang into action. “It bothered me enough that I wanted to do something about it. I said, ‘That's it.’" He started by volunteering with a rescue group and fostering dogs, but it wasn’t enough — he wanted to do more:

“I started taking in one dog at a time and I was drawn to the ones that needed me the most, the ones that nobody wanted. The severe medical cases, the severe behavior cases, the fighting dogs. I wanted to save the ones that nobody else really wanted. Nobody wants pit bulls, but nobody really wanted a pit bull that was in bad shape.

… I'd go in on my own to the pound and find a dog that nobody wanted and I'd save it. The more that I saved, the better I felt. It was almost like therapy for me to recover from my brother's death and it morphed into something.”

The Forlorn Pitbull Rescue now has more than 100 pit bulls in foster homes, along with a few cats and other breeds. In Atlanta, Jason estimates that 85% of the dogs in animal shelters are pit bulls and pit bull mixes, and 85% of the rescue groups won’t accept pit bulls. He runs into more hurdles when people looking to adopt a dog can’t because of where they live.

“I know for us, we get a lot of applications from people who are renting apartments or renting houses and they're not allowed,” Jason said. “That's part of the problem too. A lot of insurance companies won't allow pit bulls.”

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A Rescue Built on Compassion, Love and Integrity

Part of what drove Jason to start The Forlorn Pitbull Rescue was a lack of acceptance at area rescues. "I wanted to volunteer with other rescues, and because of the way that I look, a lot of tattoos, a lot of people just really wanted nothing to do with me,” he said, “So I said, ‘You know what, I'll just do it on my own.’" Now his rescue has a strong team of volunteers and fosters from all walks of life, with different backgrounds and every age group.

“Everybody's here for the cause. It's overwhelming. The more we do, the more we get called. That's just the part of it. I'm seven days a week, all hours of the day. My phone starts ringing 6:30 in the morning, it doesn't stop ringing all night long.”

Jason adds that he built the rescue “on compassion, love, integrity and commitment,” but of course they depend on donations to keep going. For Jason, what keeps him going is a daily reminder of why his work is so important:

“This work beats you up. It beats you up mentally, it beats you up financially, emotionally, and physically … What keeps me going is the words of encouragement from people, and to see the comebacks from the dogs is amazing. The bigger the setback, the bigger the comeback.

Every morning I wake up with a little fighting dog that I cut off a chain at a dog fighting bust. The police department called me, I went out and I cut 78 dogs off the chain for the police department. The guy went to jail, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for dog fighting, and I wake up with a little dog that I took from that fighting ring.

He's all scarred up and he's become the most amazing little animal. Every morning when I wake up and he's next to me, I know there's more out there and I know I’ve got to keep going. No matter how difficult it is, I have to keep going.”

There’s an Overwhelming Need for Pit Bull Rescue

If you’d like to learn more or get involved, you can find The Forlorn Pitbull Rescue at Savingpitbulls.org.¹ “We're all over social media. We're on Instagram as FTTF pit bull, we're on Facebook as Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue. Our website's pretty easy, it's savingpitbulls.org. You can donate through the website, you can donate through PayPal, you can donate through Facebook,” Jason says.

Their rescue receives 1,500 emails a day asking for help, so they’re dealing with overwhelming demand and trying to save every dog they can. They’ve purchased a 46-acre property and are planning to build a state-of-the-art facility to rescue more pit bulls in need.

Through Jason’s work, more people will have a chance to learn about this misunderstood breed, helping to shatter myths that left them with an unfairly terrible reputation. And regardless of your feelings about pit bulls, Jason implores kindness and decency from all:

“I've got a motto and it's be decent to everyone and everything that you come across. If you do that, the world will be a better place. You don't have to like pit bulls, you don't have to love them, just don't mistreat them, just be decent.

You don't have to like certain people, but just don't mistreat them. I think that if you're just decent, you don't have to be extraordinary, just be decent and have a little bit of a heart. Everybody's going through something. Just be good to people, be good to animals and I think the world would be better.”