2007
In 2007, a breed-specific law was proposed by the Baltimore County Council after an unfortunate dog bite incident. The founding members of B-More Dog met while protesting and testifying against this proposed law.
The advocates were successful! The breed-specific law did not pass. B-More Dog was born out of that momentum to do more for the community through education and outreach to try to prevent another unfortunate dog bite.
2008 - 2010
B-More Dog applied for official IRS 501(c)3 nonprofit status in 2008 and was approved in early 2009.
In October 2008, B-More Dog held its first annual "Pit Bulls on Parade" to celebrate National Pit Bull Awareness Day.
Early efforts of B-More Dog focused on spreading the message of responsible dog ownership to owners of all "pit bull" dogs to try to prevent negative publicity that surround these dogs in the media.
2011
B-More Dog's Board was impacted by terrible events of animal abuse in our city of Baltimore and became dedicated to spreading the message of kindness, compassion and dog safety to the next generation through a humane education program.
B-More Dog was further inspired by the work of leaders in the animal welfare community such as Tio Hardiman, the HSUS's End Dogfighting and Pets for Life Programs, Lori Weiss of Los Angeles's Downtown Dog Rescue and Shelter Intervention Programs, BAD RAP, Animal Farm Foundation, and Kim Wolf of Beyond Breed and the Ruff Riders Pet Owner Assistance Program.
Seeing the need to assist dog owners lacking in resources, B-More Dog launched Community Pit Bull Day in September 2011 to bring access to a veterinarian to Baltimore's underserved communities to keep dogs healthier, happier and in their homes.
2012 - 2014
In April 2012, Maryland highest court, the Court of Appeals, made a disastrous ruling which impacted pit bull dog owners throughout Maryland, particularly those living in rental properties. The May 2012 Pit Bulls on Parade event was even featured in the Washington Post, as part of our advocacy efforts.
Working side-by-side with numerous local and national organizations, B-More Dog joined in the fight to have Maryland's legislature pass a law that is fair to all dog owners to overturn the Court's ruling.
After a long two year journey marked by task force meetings, hearings, rallies, educational meetings throughout the state, and countless calls and emails, the “Pit Bull Ruling” was overturned when Governor O'Malley signed the law on April 8, 2014.
B-More Dog also continued to expand Community Pit Bull Day services and continue humane education to students throughout Baltimore during this time.
2015 - PRESENT
As a result of the ruling that discriminated against dogs that looked a certain way, B-More Dog realized that it was important to emphasize that all dogs are individuals to help combat stereotypes about how a dog will behave based upon its looks. Rather than treating pit bull dogs differently than other dogs, B-More Dog changed the name of our outreach events from Community Pit Bull Days to B-More Dog Wellness Clinics. The organization also eliminated the nominal charge for services for non-pit bull-type dogs. All dogs are now treated equally at our outreach events. Through donations and expansion of our volunteer program, additional services have been added to Clinics, such as nail trims, flea/tick preventive and dewormer products.
B-More Dog is working on strengthening our humane education programming by developing a coloring book to reinforce major points from our presentation on how to interact with dogs safely and how to treat animals humanely.