Mac the Pit Bull was rescued from a backyard breeder situation when he was just 3 months old. Since then, he’s become an advocate for animal rights. Operating under the ambit of Mac’s Mission, his popular Facebook page estimates he’s helped save more than 400 canines while running his grassroots nonprofit organization.

With Mac’s message showing no signs of slowing down, here’s your introduction to this champion canine.

The story of Mac

According to Mac’s mom, he was found in a harrowing state. “Mac weighed four pounds at 3 months old,” she explains. “He had severe mange, was very malnourished, and had a pretty awful case of worms. We just stared at him wondering how he had survived up to this point.”

Worse was soon to come: “He had an episode when he was only ours for a short time where he ended up in the emergency room with a type of bloat, and he nearly died on us.”

Mac’s personality

Thankfully, Mac pulled through his early tumultuous months and soon his real personality began to shine through to his new family. After describing Mac as an “old soul” at heart, his mom says, “Even when he was a tiny 3-month-old puppy, he would just sit and watch everybody like he was just taking it all in and really thinking about it.”

A social star

After settling into life at his forever home, Mac has blossomed into a social media star. He counts more than 300,000 Facebook fans, a number which his mom says was a surprise at first. “His followers say how they love that Mac just has a positive take on everything, even when it’s hard stuff to talk about,” she explains. “We really fight hard for the underdog, and it shows with our transparency on his page.”

Kitten love!

Mac’s official mission statement pitches him as an “advocate for Pit Bulls and underdogs,” but he’s also come to be an unlikely ally for kittens. His photo stream brims with pictures of the pooch licking a series of dinky furballs.

“Mac can be a serious goofball and he loves the constant rotation of foster animals in and out of our house,” explains his mom. “We’ve been fostering sick and injured animals for years, and he always seems to take them under his wing. The licking just kinda happens occasionally!”

Water babies

If you spend any time scrolling through Mac’s Facebook posts, you’ll discover that he’s totally smitten with pools of water. Why? Well, as his mom explains, after undergoing five leg surgeries, he became a “serious problem child for his surgeon” and ended up spending well over two-and-a-half years in a crate during his recovery spell.

“The one thing that has been his constant source of joy has been water,” she continues. “Mac tends to lose sight of the entire world and all of its problems when he can play in a puddle or go swimming!”

Mac’s message

Mac is now established as an animal rights advocate, and he has a simple message to the world: “Mac would want everybody to just be nice to each other, lift each other up, stop hating and judging,” says his mom. “Something as simple, yet as wrong, as breed-specific legislation shows that our world has so much more to learn about treating each person and creature on this planet as an individual.”

She adds, “Mac would want to tell people that even though he is a Pit Bull, he is just a dog! He is scared of stuff, he loves to hear ‘good boy,’ he wants to play, he just wants to be a dog. He knows what it is like to be sad and to hurt, but he knows how amazing it is if you push through. So he would also tell everybody that they have the ability to make it through the tough stuff: All of us have the strength inside of us, we are all Pit Bull-strong and we can persevere to make this place better.”

Hop on over to Mac’s official Facebook page to keep up to date with his adventures and charity work.

Read more by Phillip Mlynar:

• Musician Arthur Yoria Falls for a Stray Puppy He Met During a Video Shoot
• Pix We Love: Dogs on the Golf Course
• We Talk to Musical Hitmaker Bobby Brackins About His Half-Wolf, Noir

About Phillip Mlynar: The self-appointed world’s foremost expert on rappers’ cats. When not penning posts on rap music, he can be found building DIY cat towers for his adopted domestic shorthair, Mimosa, and collecting Le Creuset cookware (in red). He has also invented cat sushi, but it’s not quite what you think it is.