Man's feared friend.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

The squat, black-and-white dog leaned hard against the side of her cage, eager for a visitor's touch. As Toni Smith leaned down to give a scratch, the dog beamed, her tail slapping out a frantic rhythm on the shelter's concrete floor.

Was Smith afraid of the dog?

"No," she said, laughing. "That dog's shaking."

Behold the mighty pit bull, a dog with worse image problems than Paris Hilton.

Lane County Animal Regulation Authority has been flooded with pit bulls and pit bull mixes in recent months, and it is trying to find them homes by changing perceptions about a dog that some say gets a bad rap.

More than 330 pit bulls have arrived in seven months, a "staggering" pace of 47 per month, animal regulation manager Mike Wellington said. The shelter killed 125 of the dogs and transferred 40 to rescue operations, and about 100 went back to their owners.

But officials are most concerned that just 37 of the pit bulls and mixes were adopted.

On Friday, agency supervisor Tom Howard walked along the cages at the shelter, where about a dozen of the 28 dogs were pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

Howard can't say what's behind the glut of pit bulls, but he's got a pretty good idea why they're slow to move into adoptive homes: When people think pit bull, "the first thing they think is danger to the family, danger to other dogs," he said. "That's a bit of a misconception - they're good dogs."

Pit bulls are just the latest in a long line of dogs that have been unfairly tagged as dangerous, said Jill Buckley, director of legislative services for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City. A handful of U.S. cities, including Denver and Richmond, Va., have gone so far as to ban the breed.

Although 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs each year, there's no way to determine which kind of dog is most likely to bite you, because there's no way to count the number of dogs in a breed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Rather than breed, it is the owner's behavior that is most important in determining the dog's behavior, Buckley said. Dogs that are socialized to people at an early age, trained to be obedient, kept in healthful, playful homes, and spayed or neutered - a key element - are less likely to be dangerous.

Buckley blames part of the pit bull's publicity problem on the media because news organizations more regularly report bites by pit bulls than other breeds such as Labradors or golden retrievers, she said.

Still, pit bulls have characteristics that may fan fears.

They have an extremely high pain threshold and have long been bred for their aggressiveness, in part for use as dog fighters, according to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia.

The dogs also are athletic and powerful, with short coats that show off rippling, muscular bodies, giving them the appearance of a "doggie body-builder," the entry reads.

Even the name may feed fears: "Pit bull" sounds fierce, although it's generally used to describe several breeds, one of which sounds anything but - the American Staffordshire Terrier.

Pit bull enthusiasts devote Web sites to changing perceptions about the animal. They note that one of the most beloved dogs of television and film fame - Petey of "Our Gang" and "The Little Rascals" - was a pit bull. They call the dogs "petbulls."

Smith, 29, of Springfield, said she's a little cautious when walking past a pit bull. But she still places most of the responsibility on the person at the end of the leash.

"It's how people raise them and treat them" that is most important, she said. "I don't think there are any bad dogs."

ADOPT-A-BULL

Adoptions: Pit bulls and other adult dogs cost $60 to $130; spay and neuter vouchers are available for $25 to $100 per household

Address: 3970 W. First Ave., Eugene

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., counter closed from noon to 1 p.m.

Telephone: [phone], press "0"