Pitbull Jake didn’t bark for a year after he was rescued by animal wardens.

The nine-year-old dog had been found in a severely emaciated state and almost didn’t make it.

“They took him to a vet and he went into cardiac arrest,” said his new owner, Debbie Masters.

“They lost him and then they brought him back. How this dog survived, I’ll never know.”

Ms Masters said Jake was “starved to death when the wardens picked him up” and she initially agreed to take him in for a week, before ultimately deciding to adopt him.

He has fully recovered and is now a wonderful, trusting pet, despite the cruelty he endured in his previous home.

However, Ms Masters, a former welfare officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is acutely aware that most seized pitbulls are not so lucky.

“Right now there are so many illegal puppies in basements,” she said.

“They should put [pitbulls] back on the banned list because now there are so many of them and there are no homes for them.”

Aged 80 and retired, Ms Masters remains active when it comes to the welfare of dogs in Bermuda.

She worked for years at the SPCA as a cruelty investigator, even taking a working vacation at the end of the 2000s to help rehabilitate pitbulls used in the notorious Bad Newz dogfighting ring in Virginia run by NFL quarterback Michael Vick.

Many of those dogs went on to become pets, while some became service or therapy animals.

Ms Masters said she volunteered for the project because she believed wholeheartedly that most mistreated pitbulls could recover, thrive and become loving family members.

Yet she said that Bermuda’s pitbull problem, fuelled by illegal breeders, was now “catastrophic” and dogs were having to be destroyed in large numbers owing to the aggressive tendencies caused by inbreeding.

“It’s a cycle of abuse of these animals that we need to confront and make people accountable,” she said. “Right now they just go and get another one and do the same thing.”

She said the abuse of dogs, especially pitbulls, was widespread but people feared reporting their neighbours to the authorities in case of retaliation.

Ms Masters reported that many come to her with information and she passes it to animal control wardens to allow others to keep their anonymity. “I help the wardens quite a bit,” she said.

Before 2018, Ms Masters and other campaigners pushed for pitbulls to be removed from the list of prohibited dogs.

They were successful and the breed was reclassified as “restricted”, allowing pitbulls to be imported or acquired once certain conditions were met.

New acquisitions required preapproval and pitbulls could be bred only by those with a breeder’s permit.

Ms Masters admitted the amended legislation had not worked as envisaged, with owners not abiding by the rules and a proliferation of pitbulls not properly housed or looked after.

“People are getting attacked, people’s animals are getting killed by loose dogs,” she said. “We can’t blame the dog so much. All dogs have teeth and any dog can bite you.

“The problem with pitbulls is, once they get a hold of you, they are not going to let go. The bite is more severe.”

She said Jaché Adams, the Minister of Public Works and Environment, should urgently consider the recommendations put forward in December 2024 by the Canine Advisory Committee, of which she is a member.

“The minister is going to have to make a decision at some point,” she said. “I [told him] ‘please don’t leave it too late’.”

Ms Masters said Jake now barks twice to let her know if a truck is near their Devonshire home ― and she showers him with praise.

“Now he knows it’s his property,” she said. “The neighbours come by. He wags his tail. I tell him what a good dog he is.”

She added: “He’s a survivor. He’s so happy and there’s so many like him that don’t get that chance.”

• Anyone interested in adopting a dog should visitBermuda SPCA at 32 Valley Road, Paget or call 236-7333