Pit bulls and people were in abundance on Sunday at the West End Animal Hospital on Newberry Road.
Pit Bull Awareness Day, held for the third consecutive year, featured a record number of volunteers and new dog-themed activities.
The event, an international day celebrated in October, is planned locally by various sponsoring organizations, said Alison Hightower, local event planner and volunteer for Phoenix Animal Rescue.
Lasting from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., the event was free and open to the public and co-sponsored by West End Animal Hospital and Phoenix Animal Rescue, a local grassroots nonprofit pit bull rescue organization.
About 60 pit bulls and their owners came out to participate in games and challenges and to meet others with pit bulls in the grassy area behind the hospital.
Activities for both dogs and humans included a scavenger hunt, silent auction, bake sale and the popular weight pull demonstrations.
"There were dogs who competed and pulled over 4,000 pounds. It's definitely the biggest draw at this event," Hightower said.
According to Phoenix Animal Rescue director Michelle Dunlap, the day was adjusted based on what worked and didn't work the year before.
"We've added the scavenger hunt this year and hired a professional pet photographer. We took out some of the less popular activities like the dog show and talent show," Dunlap said.
The theme this year, "Pit bulls… celebrating more than 100 years as our best friends," was chosen to help people understand what a pit bull is really like, despite its notoriety as the most vicious type of dog, Dunlap said.
This year featured 40 volunteers, the largest number ever.
Brittany Byers, a first-time volunteer for Phoenix Animal Rescue, wanted to help out because she and her fiancé own two pit bull mixes and foster a third.
Byers said her experiences with pit bulls led her to volunteering and wanting to help foster puppies find "their forever homes."
Laura Andersen, another pit bull owner and veterinarian at UF's College of Veterinary Medicine, came Sunday in full spirit. With a shirt that read "dogs days" that matched the color of her pit bull, Max, she explained how she and her dog became reunited.
Andersen said Max was abandoned when he was 8 months old at the hospital she worked at in North Carolina. She took him home after no one wanted to take him in. Max, now 3 years old, and Andersen moved to Florida last year.
Andersen noticed that people here have been more cautious of walking near her and Max than they were back in Asheville, N.C.
"In North Carolina, people would come up to Max and pet him. Here, in Florida, people go out of their way to cross the street to avoid Max and [me]," she said.
One reason Andersen attended was to help challenge the negative stereotype she has witnessed against pit bulls. She wants Max to be able to be an ambassador for Pit bull owners require more responsibility to make sure their dogs are safe to be around and not get loose, Andersen added.
"You have to understand that with pit bulls, it's not always the dogs that are the problem. It's the owners, too. A lot of the time, it comes down to owners not training their dogs properly," she said.
One way to combat this problem, Andersen said, is to enroll your dogs in the Canine Good Citizen Test.
"It's basically a training test for dogs to make sure they are OK to be around other animals and people. It tests them on how to handle everyday situations, like sitting, staying and laying," Andersen said.
For more information on adopting pit bulls, visit phoenixanimalrescue.org.
