Deirdre Franklin is the little darling behind
Pinups for Pitbulls. Franklin started PFPB
in 2005, a project that began in her living
room as grassroots as one could get that
would eventually become a nonprofit with an
international reach. Involved in the pinup and
burlesque community, as well as the pit bull
rescue community, Franklin came up with the
idea to create a Pinups for Pitbulls calendar
and have proceeds go to the rescue she was
involved with. This came after a scare when
breed specific legislation was emerging in
places like Denver, Colorado. Under this
law, pit bull breeds in particular could be
rounded up and euthanized, as they were
deemed a threat. Worried that this could
happen in her city and the disturbing fact that
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thousands of pit bulls were being killed under
these laws, Franklin began speaking out.
Starting with a MySpace page that has now
grown to a .org site, Franklin used her voice,
her beauty, and friends in the pinup and
burlesque community to create a stunning
calendar showing pit bulls in images that
counterbalanced the typical bully images and
concepts portrayed by anti-pit bull groups
and laws.
Franklin’s own pit bull, Carla Lou starred in
the calendar and was a large influence and
presence for Pinups for Pitbulls. She was
Franklin’s companion from her teenage years
into her thirties. Although Carla Lou has
since passed, she is still much loved by her
mom and a face of the organization, along
with Franklin’s other rescue pit, Baxter Bean.
While the breed specific legislation continues
in places like Denver and Montreal (where
Franklin spent the summer trying to fight the
legislation), PFPB speaks out to educate the
public on the fallacies of these legislations.
Franklin spends most of her time traveling
and speaking, raising awareness and
advocating for the dogs at legislature events,
pet expos, tattoo conventions, and social
media expos. A few years ago, Franklin went
back to school to get her master’s degree in
public policy.
With increasing growth, PFPB went from