INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Hundreds of unwanted and abused pit bull dogs and American Bully breeds are filling up shelters and nonprofits.

Laurie Collins, founder of Lucci’s House Bully Rescue, spoke Friday about the people who can temporarily adopt the dogs. “We’re out of fosters. We have fosters that have multiple dogs right now. They are rotating out several dogs.”

Lucci’s House in Indianapolis provides shelter for more than 100 pit bulls American Bully breeds. She gets dozens of calls a day from people who find abandoned dogs.

Pit bulls and American Bullys often yield from 12 to 14 puppies per litter, and many breeders or dog owners can’t handle so many puppies. They often end up in shelters where they are euthanized or sold into dog-fighting rings.

Collins said, “People that do dog fighting, they’ll train these dogs to be basically bait for the other dogs and they train them to fight and to hurt and kill other dogs.”

Michael O’Brien, founder of The K9 Concierge in Indianapolis, says he’s trained over 500 dogs, many of them pit bulls. Very rarely, he said, has he had pit bull that attacked a human.

“There is a genetic component to that not saying there aren’t human aggressive pit bulls, there are. There are all kinds of breeds that can be aggressive, but generally speaking pits are really good with people. They tend to have a greater problem with dogs than people,” O’Brien said.

The Indiana General Assembly in 2023 introduced a bill that would have prevented municipalities from passing ordinances that regulate hobby breeders. The bill didn’t pass, but Collins says animal control, law enforcement and politicians need to be on the same page to solve the growing problem.

Collins said, “As a small rescue, we can only do so much. IACS (Indianapolis Animal Care Services), as our local public admissions shelter, they can only do so much. We have to have resources we have to have people, we have to have help.”

Anyone interested in being a foster parent for dogs at Lucci’s House can visit the organization’s website and fill out a form.

Indianapolis Animal Care Services, 2600 S. Harding St., will host an adoption fair from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.