When George was pulled out of the Stockton animal shelter on April 23, he had pink, open sores all over his neck, greenish puss crusted around the inside of his ears and a nasty kennel cough.

During his first bath, fleas leapt from the sturdy young pit bull in all directions, and when he emerged from the soapy water, his fur coat was no longer murky gray, but bright white with chestnut brown spots. "We just went up there on a little shopping trip," Christine Allen says proudly of the day she rescued George, just hours before he was euthanized.

Thousands of pit bulls and pit bull-mix breeds are dropped off at shelters, abandoned or removed from their owners each year, not only in the Bay Area but nationwide. The East Bay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) estimates that of all the dogs euthanized in 2004 in Alameda County, up to 75 percent were pit bulls and pit bull mixes. Agencies all over the Bay Area are reporting similar statistics.

Allen is a member of the Berkeley-based pit bull rescue group Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls (BAD RAP). George is one of thousands of dogs she and others like her want to save.

Animal advocates, control officials, and now government officials are so concerned with the swelling pit bull population that many want to regulate their reproduction. BAD RAP wants to do something about the problem; something that doesn't punish the good dogs because of bad dog owners, bad breeders or potentially bad dogs.

In response to the population boom and frenzy over recent pit bull related attacks, including the killing of 12-year-old Nicolas Faibish by his family's two pit bull terriers this summer, San Francisco is currently considering legislative action against the breed.

A bill that would allow local governments to enact breed-specific legislation was recently approved by the California Senate and now awaits approval by the governor. The legislation permits cities and towns to require mandatory spay and neutering programs.

While fixing pits would help to control the population, animal advocates say that it unfairly targets pit bulls and responsible owners, even though there is no proof the pit bulls are inherently more dangerous than, say, a labrador retriever.

The only way to say for sure a dog is a pit bull is if it's registered. Only about 10 percent of owners who actually register and license their dogs. Therefore, it's impossible to know how many there are, according to Jean Donaldson, director of the academy for dog trainers of the San Francisco SPCA. "Not only do we not know how many pit bulls there are, we don't know how many dogs there are in the country," she says.

"One of the worst abuses against the breed is overpopulation and over breeding," BAD RAP co-founder Donna Reynolds says. "It creates bad temperaments, health problems and many have nowhere to go."

Having just announced a new partnership with the East Bay SPCA, as well as its first-ever pit bull convention in Oakland this month, BAD RAP approaches the issue as a people problem. They offer educational outreach aimed at better understanding and appreciation of the breed, in hopes of creating more responsible ownership.

One of the challenges rescue groups like BAD RAP face is identifying dogs suitable for training and adoption. Many show up at shelters with fresh chemical burns or are found abandoned in parking lots. It's the kind of abuse that can leave irreparable damage.

BAD RAP uses temperament testing as the key to identifying shelter pit bulls who show potential to be trained and socialized back into society. Over 80 percent of the pit bulls that took the temperament test administered by the American Temperament Test Society in 2004 passed.

Temperament testing isn't for the fearful, as Allen and other dog rescuers demonstrate. Every time they step into a long hall lined with kennels, each holding a dog that could be an ideal family pet or an animal driven to attack, the challenge is to make the distinction between the two.

Testing begins with a "kennel test," with a wire fence separating dog from human. Allen begins by approaching the kennel and calling George over to make eye contact with her, hoping he will shy away and be unwilling to challenge her. After he responds appropriately to this by bowing his head and averting her gaze, she blows in his face and he kisses the air in reply, a sign that it was safe to take down the chain-link barrier.

She then moves into a small cement room, with George held on a short leash by Allen's rescue companion, Bambi Banys. Allen pats him everywhere, tickles him, lifts his legs, grasps his big feet, lifts his gums and picks him up. They play tug of war with a thick cloth rope, all in attempt to arouse George as much as possible. "We tried to rile him up to see if he would bite, but he just rolled over," Allen says.

George, who weighs more than 65 pounds and has protruding leg and chest muscles, is large for a pit bull. Despite his intimidating appearance, he gave an ideal response to his test, and Allen took him home to Watsonville that very day.

"He was just so big and goofy and dorky," she says, excited that she had been able to make such a rescue.

After dogs like George are selected, they are placed in foster homes while undergoing training. This process can take one to six months or more, depending on the dog.

Pit bulls have a reputation for being dangerous, aggressive and disobedient. But according to BAD RAP, many owners rate social consequences as one of the biggest challenges they face as pit bull owners.

People are scared of pit bulls, which is something that owners have to deal with daily. Leslie Nuccio, who owns two pit bulls, says she has faced plenty of challenges as an owner of the breed. She also adds that a frequent trigger for complaints is simply when people realize the dogs are pit bulls.

George has been one of the lucky ones. Four months after his rescue, BAD RAP found him a home with Atem and Catherine Reed in San Francisco. "I think George is the most laid back dog I've had," Atem Reed says, smiling down at his new dog. “He has a licking compulsion.”

Not all pit bulls are as easy going as George, but BAD RAP hopes the public will become informed enough to give them a fighting chance. "You know what I always tell people who ask about pit bull overpopulation," Nuccio says. "You have two eyes, go look."

Research support for this story was made possible by a Frank McCulloch Investigative Reporting Scholarship.