Editorials

People have thrown rocks and yelled at her. They’ve tried poisoning her dogs. She even ended up renting a small house on a Castro Valley ranch without heat or running water because she couldn’t find another place that would allow pit bulls. 

And despite the trouble, Kristine Crawford will load her pit bull search-and-rescue dogs into her 4X4 truck at any hour to help find a missing person. Crawford owns three pit bulls trained in specialized search-and-rescue techniques such as cadaver and area search as well as trailing a specific scent. They are also trained to navigate boulders in the forest and rubble in the city, Crawford said.  

Crawford is a member of the California Search and Rescue Dog Association, a volunteer group of animal owners who are on call to help find missing persons anywhere in the state.  

Last month Crawford was called to Pacifica to help find an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease. At 2 a.m. Crawford had searched for an hour when another dog team found the man 600-feet down a ravine. Because it was 40 degrees outside, Crawford does not believe he would have made it through the night.  

However, the negative stigma attached to pit bulls causes Crawford to have her share of unpleasant moments as well. Once Crawford was helping a search-and-rescue effort in the Sierra Nevadas when a sheriff’s deputy pulled a gun on Dakota, her primary search-and-rescue dog.  

“He said, ‘That’s a vicious dog. You need to put him back in the car.’ Then another deputy who had worked with me told him to holster his weapon and thank his lucky stars because Dakota is one damn good search dog,” she said.  

In fact, Crawford said the characteristics that give pit bulls their bad reputation also make them good search-and-rescue dogs.  

“Whatever they do, they do they do to the best of their ability,” she said.  

Pit bulls are extremely focused, very obedient, agile and social, Crawford said.  

Scott Delucchi, spokesperson for the Peninsula Humane Society, said pit bulls are definitely a working dog and they can also be aggressive with other dogs. However, he said with the increased media attention, there’s a misconception that dog bites are on the rise. 

“In San Mateo County, bites are down, but they’re being reported more,” Delucchi said.  

Delucchi also said much of pit bulls’ reputation depends on their owners. 

“Different types of people want to have pit bulls,” Delucchi said. “Sometimes they have a macho mentality and they want to have an aggressive dog,” 

Crawford, a 40-year-old pet store manager who moved to the Bay Area from Minnesota 10 years ago, may be tough, but she’s anything but macho. Crawford has been training pit bulls for six years, ever since she saved Cheyenne from being euthanized. Crawford was fighting a severe illness at the time and adopted Cheyenne to help lift her spirits. Cheyenne, now 6 years old, learned to retrieve items for Crawford when she was sick.  

Now that Crawford has recovered from her illness, she wants to give back to society.  

“I decided to do more in my life. [As showdogs] if they do good, they’ll get a blue ribbon or a trophy. But now if they do good, they’ll save someone’s life,” she said.  

Crawford adopted the 5-year-old Dakota when she was 6 weeks old and part of a dog-fighting ring. Since then, Dakota has become the star of her crew. Her third dog is Tahoe, a 14-month-old who is the youngest dog in the group. All have undergone the search and rescue two-year training.  

Even though the dogs usually sport their “rescue dog” vests in public, Crawford said people have gotten so angry at her for having the breed that they have thrown rocks at her and screamed. Once, she discovered that someone had sprinkled rat poison in her car. Another time, she was training with Dakota on a golf course when a golfer hit the dog over the head with a golf club.  

“He said, ‘All I saw was a pit bull,’ “ she said.  

Crawford is committed to breaking the stigma attached to their breed and often brings all three dogs to schools, hospitals and nursing homes. The visits to schools are also important, Crawford said, because it can help children understand what to do if attacked by any dog.  

Most importantly, she said anyone should not run because that may provoke the predatory instinct. If attacked, Crawford said it’s critical to cover the neck and head. She added that most dogs will respond to the command, “No.” 

Visits to nursing homes can also benefit patients because they often go days without visitors. To the lonely, Crawford said it doesn’t matter if the dogs have a bad reputation.  

“They may not say anything, but you see the smile and know you made a difference,” she said.