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PAWS Magazine

Issue 49, Summer 2001

Dog is her co-pilot

by Samantha Sherman

A teenage girl waits for the bus in front of a Vashon Island feed store. She scans

the literature on the wall and her eye falls upon a poster depicting a horrific sightthat strikes her so deeply and personally that her life would change forever. Theposter, from the American Anti-Vivisection Society, shows two scientists standingover a scared white pit bull with a second heart surgically implanted in its neck. InKing County at that time, Animal Control was required by law to sell unclaimedcompanion animals to research laboratories. Looking at the poster and thinking of her own dog, she realizes that the threat exists of losing him to a similar fate. Thismoment, at 14-years-old, became the root of all that is now Diane Jessup. Bornwas the drive to fight for and protect not just her dog, but all the other animals thatstood to be used for scientific research. That was also the day that, somewhere inher mind, she began to write a book.

Now, almost 30 year s later, Jessup’s first

novel, “The Dog Who Spoke With Gods,”was recently published by St. Martin’sPress. Jessup, a nationally-respected pitbull advocate who lives in Olympia andworks for Thurston County AnimalControl, used her lif etime of experiencewith the much-maligned breed, a lifetimeof concern for laboratory animals and her 

unabashed devotion to dogs, to createthis wildly unique and moving tale of a pitbull named Damien and a girl who grows

to love him. She has been chosen as oneof the 12 new up-and-coming fictionauthors featured in Publishers Weekly.

“Seeing that poster was the turning pointin my life,” says Jessup. Passion andanger drove her to contact the AmericanAnti-Vivisection Society who supplied her with literature to distribute. Outside her local grocery store, with shoppers takingpains to avoid her and her card table fullof gruesome pictures, Jessup sat by

herself, trying to spread the word. With a now heightened sense of awareness,she soon learned that she was not alone in her crusade. “I heard about avolunteering opportunity to go make signs, probably for a protest. I can’tremember names very well but I sure remember her name,” says Jessup. Thename? Virginia Knouse, co-founder of PAWS. “There was a King Countyreferendum, that she was spear-heading which was to stop the county from sellinganimals to research. And I was like ‘woo-hoo!’ Here’s a woman who’s spendingher time [helping animals], and she’s an adult! And I got to go to her house andhelp build signs and I just thought I was in the presence of the Second Coming!And I’ve never forgotten that day.

“I followed her career and it amazed me how one person, working with others,could make the difference she and PAWS made locally. PAWS was the [group]

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8/3/2019 PAWS Magazine Diane Jessup Interview

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who stopped the sale of animals from the King County shelters; it was atremendous thing.”

The 14-year-old girl is now an adult herself. Her license plate reads “1BAD PIT.”It’s more irony than descriptive. Jessup is definitely not one of those pit bullowners you hear about on the news.

Her love of the breed and desire to work with dogs led Jessup down a path repletewith a variety of different ways for her to get involved. She started off training dogsfor police work and obedience. The more she learned, the more she spread her knowledge. She began getting recognized as a pit bull expert and was called uponfrequently for her professional advice. She was regularly called on as an expertwitness in court cases involving dogs regarding bites, temperament evaluations,

and aggressive tendencies. Interestingly, but not surprising to Jessup, she can’tremember any of the dog biting cases involving pit bulls. Dobermans, goldenretrievers, and Labradors were the “bad boys” in the bunch.

“If there ever was a breed of dog that needs help, it’s the pit bull,” says Jessup.“They’re the victims.”

Being a pit bull guardian and trainer, Jessup is painfully aware of the issues nowsurrounding the breed. “They’re a fad breed right now and because of that they’reso overpopulated.”

As one of the nation’s leading experts on pit bulls, Jessup has been able to useher status to bring a positive message about the much-maligned breed.

She’s written numerous articles for national magazines covering everything from“The History of the Guard Dog” to “Selection of a Good Dog.” She was, and is,regularly interviewed by news teams and specialty shows for her opinions on dogaggression and dangerous dogs. Not long ago she received a call from the

television show “The O’Reilly Factor,” asking her to possibly appear andparticipate in a debate regarding banning pit bulls. She, of course, was on the“con” side of the debate.

Animal control associations across the United States, as well as other organizations, have participated in her “The Dangerous Dog and You” workshop.Designed to deal with “all aspects of dangerous dog behavior,” she and her pit bulldog Dread would serve as the lead actors in a simulation that taught students howto deal with an attack dog. She also ran a workshop entitled “Introduction to Dogand Cock Fighting,” designed to educate mainly law enforcement officials acrossthe U.S. on what to look for when presented with scenes showing signs of 

possible humans engaging in animal fighting. Her clout took her to five differentcountries that also wanted to host her workshops.

Her passion for pit bulls lead her to write two other books as well: “The WorkingPit Bull,” which sold 10,000 copies and she co-wrote “Colby’s Book of theAmerican Pit Bull Terrier” with Louis Colby. Both publications focused on theAmerican Pit Bull Terrier, their history, and their nature. “[They] show all the other things pit bulls are good at besides fighting,” says Jessup.

She and Dread had some time in the Hollywood spotlight as well. Dread hasappeared in movies with MacCaully Culkin, Marlee Matlin and Sylvester Stallone.Working on a set is tricky, Jessup says, because of the pressure of getting theshot right. But there was great satisfaction when the goal was achieved. Jessupeven met Oprah Winfrey when she appeared on the Oprah Show in 1996 as anexpert on canine aggression and dog attack.

Now Jessup spends much of her time devoted to rescuing and finding lovinghomes for pit bulls. “I don’t like the word ‘expert’,” says Jessup, “but I would say

I’ve done a lot with pit bulls. I would say I’m very comfortable speaking to peopleabout pit bulls and explaining them and understanding them, so I guess that wouldbe the definition of an expert.” She adds, “In the last 16 years I’ve been veryinvolved in the breed, constantly researching and looking into the history of it. Butyou can read and you can research, but if you’ve never owned a pit bull youcannot, in my opinion, be a pit bull expert. When you live and breathe withsomething I think you can call yourself an expert.”

To say that she lives and breathes with pit bulls is almost an understatement. Her answering machine plainly states that she will be “out with the dogs” until 9pm,

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every evening. Her one -acre home consists of a modest one-bedroom house for her and the rest of the land is parceled out, front and back, to the dogs and her second love—her garden. Each dog has his or her own house atop a pitcher’smound of dry dirt. They are each clean and cut like Arnold Schwartzenegger andeach have a rugged collar with a brass name plate that gives their name, her name and both of her numbers. They are exercised regularly and brought in thehouse to sleep each night (no small task). To see them with her melts the heart—the mutual adoration and respect is almost palpable.

Jessup poured this adoration into her newly published novel “The Dog Who SpokeWith Gods.” “The book was my way of getting out a young woman’s journey from

not really having any idea about pet ownership and then befriending a dog,” says

Jessup. “And really how casually that bond grows from nothing to such a strongbond that she’s willing to forsake a lot of things.”

The book’s story harks all the way back to that fateful day in the feed store: Amedical student named Elizabeth takes a job as a socialization handler at auniversity research facility. There she meets Damien, a stray pit bull found by ascientist and brought in to become a laboratory research animal. Damien is not anordinary dog, which is possibly why she becomes inexplicably drawn to him. Shefinds herself torn between her upbringing and her instinct. Both her father andgrandfather are cardiac surgeons, which is the profession that she herself isworking towards. They also regularly use dogs for research. Her love for Damienforces her to examine her emotional self and question philosophies that she had

always taken for granted. Can she stand by while this special dog is used as a testanimal?

The plot in “The Dog Who Spoke With Gods” centers on the use of dogs inlaboratory research. There are graphic and discomforting descriptions that oftenmake it difficult to read. Jessup is concerned that the medical profession’s relianceon animal testing offers few choices for concerned patients. “When I look atanimal research testing I would like to have an option to go to doctors who havebecome doctors without using animal research,” says Jessup.

“We went out of our way to make the research in the book psychological testing—which I particularly think there’s no excuse for,” says Jessup. “I feel there’s noexcuse for drug testing either because an animal—a dog—and a person are quitedifferent and you still, at some point, have to try it on a person. There’s an awful

lot of research out there that is unnecessary and it bothers me that the humanrace is so cowardly that we will cower down before disease and say “take my pet,don’t take me.”

Another issue she raises in the book is the use of electric shock collars on dogs. “Iwas [using the book to] grind my axe about electric shock collars,” says Jessup.“They are becoming super popular.”

The electric shock collar is an ominous and uncomfortable presence in the storywhen Damien is made to wear one as a way to force loyalty. “They’re available atPetco,” says Jessup. “No training needed. Anybody can buy them.

“You can program it to different levels, it can emit a short shock or a continuousshock, it emits about the same amount of pain as an electric fence.” But instead of a fixed obstacle like a fence, control of the electric current is in the hand of thehuman. “There’s a story of an owner trying to train his dog to track. He keptapplying the continuous shock until finally the dog bit him. The dog was, in turn,

put down.”

PAWS also opposes the use of shock collars on dogs. “They are just dealing withsymptoms, not causes,” says Tamar Puckett, PAWS Companion Animal Advocate.

Jessup’s commitment to pit bulls may be costly. “We could sell a lot more copies of this book if you make this a different breed of dog,” said Jessup’s literary agentJane Berkey, who is involved in pit bull rescue herself.

Jessup didn’t even have to consider her answer. “Absolutely not,” she said.

This came as a relief to Berkey who was also very committed to keeping the dogas a pit bull. “We knew it was never going to be a commercial book,” says Berkey.“But it was something we wanted to put out with a pit bull just being a normal dog—other than the talking!”

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Oh, that’s right. Damien, the canine hero of “The Dog Who Spoke With Gods,”talks. What better way to communicate the frustration inherent in being alaboratory animal?

Shelters like the PAWS Lynnwood shelter suffer from the stigma against pit bulls.Even though PAWS constantly evaluates the temperament of all of its dogs, manypeople are reluctant to adopt pit bulls because of negative assumptions about the

breed. Because so many backyard breeders are producing pit bulls, the shelter tends to attract a disproportionate share of them. And even when an adopter fallsin love with a pit bull at the PAWS shelter, if the adopter is from a community likeEverett, PAWS can’t adopt the dog to her. Everett has an ordinance thateffectively bans pit bulls.

“It’s one of the reasons why we support dangerous dog ordinances and not breedspecific ordinances,” says PAWS’s Puckett. Dangerous dog ordinances target

individual dogs who are proven dangerous, and places a greater burden on thedog’s human guardian.

Jessup is concerned that many people don’t realized how sensitive pit bulls canbe. “The last thing you need to do is get tough with a pit bull,” says Jessup. “Theyare really eager-to-please dogs. People think they are hard-headed or tough, butthey’re pretty sensitive dogs.”

Pit bulls are also burdened by the stigma that when they bite, their jaws lock,making them especially dangerous. Jessup clears up this urban legend borne of the breed’s background working with cows on farms. “It’s really blown out of proportion because everybody thinks they’re so mean and they’re biting people allthe time—if they were then they’d be hanging on and we’d have a lot more messthan we have.” But of course we don’t have a population of people with dogmouths permanently locked to parts of their bodies. “When they grab another dog

they do tend to hang on and that’s when people get really freaked out andfrightened.

“Probably the biggest myth behind ‘locking jaws’ is that they are an aggressivebreed—a breed that’s mean to people, or that they’re great guard dogs,” saysJessup. “Nothing could be further from the truth. They’ve never been really bred

for that and generally pit bulls—a sound pit bull—are a very people-friendly,unsuspicious, unprotective sort of dog.”

The media plays a large part in perpetuating myths about pit bulls. Jessup isconcerned that the media does not provide balance. She notes an incident thathappened on July 4 this year where a child was mauled by a Chow Chow. “He’sgoing to need multiple surgeries to put his face back together,” says Jessup. “Butdid you hear about that on the news? No.” Jessup’s point is that there are manydog bite incidents involving many breeds. But by just focusing on incidentsinvolving pit bulls, the public is led to believe that not only are all pit bullsdangerous, but conversely, all other dogs breeds are benign.

“People forget that dogs are not people,” says Puckett. “They are pack animalsand their behavior towards people is usually predicated on where they perceivethat person to be in the hierarchy of the pack. It would help if the media were to

put that type of perspective in their coverage.”

Raising a pit bull can be immensely rewarding, but also challenging. The PAWSshelter has had its share of pit bulls returned after adoption. “Sometimes peopledon’t know what they are getting into,” says Richard Huffman, PAWS Director of Advocacy and Outreach. “They are very active, and are full of energy. They canbe dog-aggressive. They can be your best friend ever, but they need a lot of your 

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attention.” Huffman should know; Ruby, a pit bull mix he adopted from PAWS inApril, takes up much of his time. “She’s a great girl though.”

Jessup believes that much of dog behavior comes from their genes. “I trulybelieve that a dog is about 90% genetics,” says Jessup. She believes that manyof the aggressive pit bulls put down in the nation’s shelters are the victims of generations of indiscriminate breeding.

Another problem facing pit bulls is getting the dogs placed in a home at all.Sometimes pit bulls at the PAWS shelter wait two or three months to find a home.Part of the difficulty, says Huffman, is that “people come in with assumptions aboutthe dogs and that makes it harder to place them.” From her work at AnimalServices Jessup concurs. “They’re not an easy dog to place. They are what I call

‘special needs’ dogs. Single-animal homes are best.”

“I know the source of the [pit bull] problem. And I have no problem saying that it’sthe high-risk owner. A dog is only as dangerous as the owner allows it to be,”Jessup asserts. Puckett agrees. “It’s the human beings that exploit thepredisposition of pit bulls. These dogs have the potential to be very loving dogs.”

Unfortunately many of these dogs, suffering from insurmountable behavioralissues, have to be euthanized. Jessup has even personally had to perform thistask at Animal Services. One of Jessup’s main focuses now is in pit bull rescue.She works closely with Jane Berkey, her agent, flying dogs back and forthbetween here and the East Coast. A dog may get a plane ticket if there is a homein the Northwest that suits the dog and its abilities. Jessup and the other rescuersare very careful to match the dog well with its new guardian. As a matter of 

course, Jessup recently could not resist adopting, for herself, another pit bull whobears the descriptive name of Crazy Kate. Crazy Kate got a plane ride out of thedeal!

What is the motivation for a person to go to such lengths for animals? “I havedefinitely shared a lot of my life with a lot of animals and if I could give somethingback that would be a tiny part of what they’ve given to me, I would be glad to dothat.” Her book is an homage to dogs, and the bond that can occur between dogand human. She dedicates it to four dogs in her life, one being of course, her special dog Dread. The obvious respect and admiration she has for dogs andwhat they can give us is clearly apparent through the course of the book.

“I would like readers to have enjoyed it like they were able to share the experienceof truly loving a dog and seeing nature through that animal,” says Jessup. “I thinkthat’s one thing dogs do for us, [they] bring out the Peter Pan in us, they bring out

the kid, the nature lover. It’s more fun to walk through the woods with your dogthan it is to walk through the woods alone. A dog really sharpens your appreciationfor nature. Dogs are really unique animals and they really deserve our respect. It’sa book about friendship and I think that people need to be friends with their dogs.”

Flash back to the 14-year-old girl, the Vashon Island feed store, the poster.Jessup does the tabling. She meets PAWS’s Virginia Knouse. She feelsencouraged, supported and inspired to follow her heart and dedicate her life toanimals. She is particularly taken by a breed that coincidentally needs her. Shehas loved them, lived and worked with them and has educated others along theway. Jessup puts it best: “Some of my best friends are dogs. I’ve had anopportunity in my life to really rely on my dogs, they’ve really come through for me.So I really feel like I owe them a lot, too.”

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