Indigo Bully Connection
Not too long ago the American Pit Bull Terrier was the mascott of this country, not the Bald Eagle... the APBT.
The bald Eagle is more than a Mascot, It is the Symbol of this nation.

Your Sargent Stubby (1916) at most was a mascot of Georgetown law school.

The Bald Eagle national significance dates back to June 20, 1782, when the Continental Congress officially adopted the current design for the seal including a Bald Eagle grasping arrows and an olive branch with its claw. Some states had earlier done so in 1778.

In 1784, after the end of the Revolutionary war, Benjamin Franklin wrote a famous letter to his daughter from Paris criticizing the choice and suggesting the Wild Turkey's character as a desirable trait: