The Michael Vick dogs - then and now - Democratic Underground

housewolf

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Mon Nov-22-10 03:37 AM
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The Michael Vick dogs - then and now

Just for a minute, let's revisit what the authorities found when they raided Michael Vick's compound

From a 2008 article in Sports Illustrated:

...
A few of the dogs, probably pets, were kept in one of the sheds. The fighters and a handful of dogs that Bad Newz housed for other people lived in the outdoor kennels. The rest -- dogs that were too young to fight, were used for breeding or were kept as bait dogs for the fighters to practice on -- were chained to the car axles in the woods.

The water in the bowls was speckled with algae. Females were strapped into a "rape stand" so the dogs could breed without injuring each other. Some of the sheds held syringes and other medical supplies, and training equipment such as treadmills and spring bars (from which dogs hung, teeth clamped on rubber rings, to strengthen their jaws). The biggest shed had a fighting pit, once covered by a bloodstained carpet that was found in the woods.

According to court documents, from time to time Vick and his cohorts "rolled" the dogs: put them in the pit for short battles to see which ones had the right stuff. Those that fought got affection, food, vitamins and training sessions. The ones that showed no taste for blood were killed -- by gunshot, electrocution, drowning, hanging or, in at least one case, being repeatedly slammed against the ground.

It's impossible to say what Jasmine saw while circling the axles deep in the woods, but dogs can hear a tick yawn at 50 yards. The sounds of the fights and the executions undoubtedly filtered through the trees. "Multiple studies have shown that if you take two mammals, say rats, and put them in boxes side by side, then give the first one electric shocks, the reaction of the second one -- in terms of brain-wave and nervous-system activity -- will be identical," says Stephen Zawistowski, a certified applied animal behaviorist and an executive vice president of the ASPCA. "The trauma isn't limited to the animal that's experiencing the pain."

In a sense, then, whatever atrocities any of the dogs suffered at 1915 Moonlight Road, all of them suffered. ....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/12/22/vick.dogs/index.html
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What to do about the dogs?

While the ASPCA and PETA recommended euthanizing all 51 of Michael Vick's dogs, all the dogs were individually evaluated. Two died while in the shelters during then 4 montoh period before the evaluations began; one was destroyed because it was too violent; and another was euthanized for medical reasons. Twenty-two dogs went to Best Friends dog resuce in Utah, 10 went to "Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls" (BADRAP). The other 15 went to other dog resuces around the country or were adopted.

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What the evaluators found
It didn't help that the assessors had no idea what to expect. Besides their time at Bad Newz, the dogs had spent four months locked up in shelters with minimal attention. That alone could push many dogs over the brink. "I thought, If we can save three or four, it will be fantastic," Reynolds says.

Adds Racer, "We had been told these were the most vicious dogs in America."

So what they found in the pens caught them off guard. "Some of them were just big goofy dogs you'd find in any shelter," says Zawistowski. No more than a dozen were seasoned fighters, and few showed a desire to harm anything.

"We were surprised at how little aggression there was," says Reynolds. Many of the dogs had all but shut down. They cowered in the corners of their kennels or stood hunched with their heads lowered, their tails between their legs and their feet shifting nervously. Some didn't want to come out. As far as they knew bad things happened when people came. Bad things happened when they were led out of their cages.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/12/22/vick.dogs/2.html#ixzz15zna0GPJ

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Where are they now?
Some of the dogs have been successfully adopted out and have become loving and beloved family members. 1 is now a therapy dog. Here's an article about what's become of a few of them
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/20/earlyshow/contributors/debbyeturner/main6884094.shtml

And here's a story about how some of the others who were rescured by the "Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls) are doing now
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/20/earlyshow/contributors/debbyeturner/main6884094.shtml

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"Best Friends Animal Society" rescued 22 of Michael Vick's dogs. I saw the show on this a couple years ago. They drove all the way from their sanctuary in Utah to Vick's compound in Virginia to pick up almost half of them

Here's what they have to say about him

http://blogs.bestfriends.org/index.php/2010/11/18/michael-vick-the-value-proposition/
....
From what we at Best Friends know of the way Michael Vick has related to the animals he abused, the answer is clearly that he has “simply rediscovered the pocket.” Best Friends took 22 of Vick’s 48 seized dogs and the only contact we’ve received from Vick or his representatives was by way of some overtures from his agent, one of his attorneys and a PR firm specializing in reputation rehabilitation. They were interested in some public glad handing that would put Vick in a favorable light with the NFL, which at the time was still considering whether or not to reinstate him. We declined.

Best Friends has never heard from Michael Vick or any of his representatives inquiring after the health or well being of any of the 22 dogs that we received from his fighting ring.

According to the law, Michael Vick has paid his debt to society. Many would argue though that being free to get on with his life is one thing. Being welcomed into the highly privileged ranks of the NFL is quite another and warrants a much higher threshold of qualification. Plaschke again:

“…a large percentage of the population will still think Michael Vick is a sociopath. Many people will never get over Vick’s own admissions of unthinkable cruelty to his pit bulls — the strangling, the drowning, the electrocutions, the removal of all the teeth of female dogs who would fight back during mating.”

Obviously not a sufficiently large enough percentage of the population feels that way to deter the NFL from allowing someone on the field who many do believe is a sociopath ex-convict as long as he can fill the seats. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t know they could get away with it.

Despite the fact that America is routinely described as a nation of animal lovers, concern for the lives and well being of those animals doesn’t yet compete with the desire to be entertained. That’s a problem.
....

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Michael Vick's guilty plea and fines

"On Aug. 23, 2007, Vick appeared in U.S. District Court in Richmond, and Judge Hudson accepted a plea agreement in which the former quarterback admitted that he had been involved in dogfighting and had personally participated in killing animals. The agreement required him to pay $928,000 for the care and treatment of the dogs, including any humane destruction deemed necessary.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/12/22/vick.dogs/2.html#ixzz15zmy6pYe"

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Jim Gorant, author of the 2008 Sports Illustrated article, has recently released a book about Michael Vick's dogs titled "The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption". For more info, see
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Dogs-Michael-Rescue-Redemption/dp/1592405509

Here's an interview with Jim Gorant about his book, Michael Vick and the dogs with new pictures of 6 of the dogs
http://www.pawnation.com/2010/09/17/what-happened-to-michael-vicks-dogs-jim-gorant-tells-the-story/