As many as three pit bulls or pit bull–looking dogs could be headed to Martha’s Vineyard for adoption after a rescue mission by the group Angels Helping Animals Worldwide, Ashley Medeiros, an adoption counselor with the group, told The Times Wednesday.
“Simply because of how they look, they’re an illegal breed in Bermuda,” Ms. Medeiros said. The dogs were seized, and would have been euthanized without the intervention of the Angels Helping Animals organization.
Bermuda prohibits some breeds, like pit bulls, and restricts others, like German shepherds. The ban has been in effect since 2003.
“Bermuda has a barbaric way of thinking toward dog breeds,” Ms. Medeiros said.
Angels Helping Animals worked with the minister of home affairs, Walton Brown, to organize the rescue. Leslie Hurd, the founder of Angels Helping Animals Worldwide, publishes magazines on the island, and worked with Mr. Brown to rescue the dogs. The dogs are in Delaware, where they are being assessed. Of the seven dogs, a couple of the puppies could wind up on the Vineyard for adoption, Ms. Hurd said.
At least two of the dogs are going to relatives of a Bermuda family in New York, while the family works to either have them returned or makes arrangements to move. “They’re trying to get visas to move to the U.S. so they can get their dogs back,” Ms. Medeiros said.
For more information on the rescue and the dogs that may become available, see the organization’s website, ahaww.org.
