I wanted to tell you about something extremely disturbing a customer told me today. She felt it was her duty to tell me about this, and I feel like it's my duty to tell you (I'm notifying my four other Boston Terrier-owner friends of this as well). The customer noticed my Boston's picture on my name tag and said that she had her Boston stolen from her front yard recently. She let her dogs (2 Bostons & 2 Pugs) out to potty, and they were very well-trained & would never consider leaving their yard. One of her Bostons was taking a long time to pick a spot, and she had a phone call and let the other dogs back in and left the remaining Boston outside for a second to finish his business. She came right back outside, and he had vanished. She knew he was probably stolen, but she put up signs all over her neighborhood, and was shocked by the response she got.
Many people called her (several who lived on her block) that said their Bostons had been stolen as well and told her to report it to the police. The police had a horrible conclusion. First of all, it wasn't a random thing since nearly all the dogs recently stolen in the area were Bostons and not just any "purebred-looking" dog; this breed itself was being targeted. Second, since most, if not all, these dogs were simply pets and were spayed or neutered, it was not likely they were taken by a puppy mill for breeding purposes. Their fate was most likely far more horrible.
It turns out that in illegal dog-fighting rings (which are very prevalent this area of the country), Boston Terriers are now considered the perfect "bait" for training Pit Bulls to fight, for three reasons:
1) They look like small Pit Bulls, so young Pits in training will learn to go after dogs that have that similar shape and build while not getting harmed in the training process since the Boston is much smaller.
2) Bostons, unlike many other small breeds, have a lot of Bulldog characteristics and are thus willing fight back until death. Therefore, unlike other "bait" dogs, they do more than simply stand there and let themselves get torn up and will better prepare the Pits for fighting--again, without posing too much danger of the "trainee" getting hurt since the much-smaller Boston doesn't stand a chance.
3) This is the perhaps the most stomach-churning. Fighting dogs are trained to go for the neck and throat of the opponent, and the white collar of the Boston allows a training dog's owner to more easily tell how much damage his charge is able to inflict.
I thought you should be aware of this trend since Bostons are apparently being sought-after as bait dogs. Maybe you should also let other Boston owners and your puppies' buyers be aware of this--not to scare them, but because it's much better to be safe than sorry.
Stay close to your family and don't take bones from stranges - especially you Cali pups!
