By Sally Blundell of Frank Film Dimples, Mocha and big headed, slobbery-tongued, muscular Booger – Boogs for short. Just three of the thousands of bull breeds – bulldogs, pitbulls, bull mastiffs, bull terriers, rottweilers, and, like Boogs, XL bullies – that have been taken in by Christchurch Bull Breed Rescue over the last 15 years. Behind a six-foot fence on a corner site in industrial Woolston, the dogs receive assessment, medical care, behavioural training, pats by the bucket-load and, hopefully, a new home.
“A lot of pounds around the country won't rehome bull breed dogs but they will send them to a shelter,” says CBBR founder and director Abbey van der Plas. “So for a lot of the dogs we are taking from pounds, we are literally their only chance – if they can't come to us, they get put down.” Some have been bred as fighting dogs, some have never seen the outside of a gang house, some have been tied up for most of their lives, some abandoned.
But almost all, she says, have been sentenced by a reputation for being scary and aggressive. “At the end of the day they're dogs. And there’s no one breed of dog that is more inherently dangerous than any other breed of dog,” she tells Frank Film.
“The misconceptions around these dogs are false but false narratives get pushed and believed. One of the things we like to do is educate people and if we can change a couple of people’s minds, we’ve won that day.” She gives Mocha, a Cane Corso (Italian mastiff.
