According to inside edition the dogs actual name is Shelby and is a Rottweiler/Shepherd mix not a pit bull. Why didn't they cast an actual pit bull mix? Liability??
shareI have been wondering what breed she is myself. She looks cute on the poster. That's the main thing. And the right temperament is important for dog actors.
shareHmm.. Bella was only a small part pit if she had any at all, but that was one of the points of the Dog Officer's dickness. He *suspected* Bella was pat pit so the Dog Nazi decided she must be confiscated to be euthanized. Totally unfair.
I think if they had used a pure American Staffordshire Terrier (gack), a lot of people watching wouldn't have the sympathy for her that was required for the movie to work.
I've been wondering what she was myself. That was the thing that didn't make sense to me. Because she doesn't even look like she's part pit bull.
shareA follow up
As a condition of giving them the rights to the story, the author insisted they had to use a rescue dog for the part of Bella. Shelby apparently was the only one they could find that was trainable in the timeframe they had.
Her actual breed wasn't the point. The movie went out of its way to show that there only had to be an assumption that she had pit bull in her in order for her to be banned from living in Denver or put down. That's how warped some of these breed banning laws can be.
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