About a year ago, on April 24, I reviewed Jim Gorant's book The Lost Dogs. Frankly, the case still makes me feel ill. That Vick has another multimillion dollar contract makes me ill. That he doesn't seem to be sorry for what he does, but rather sorry that he got caught...well, enough about him.
Because so many of those dogs have been successful. They're therapy dogs. They have their Canine Good Citizen titles. They're in happy homes, with families who love them. Apparently they're referred to by some as Vicktory Dogs, and I like it. It shows what can be accomplished with care and consideration.
As I've said before, I can't in good conscience speak out against breed prejudices that target the Doberman without giving pit bull prejudice the time of day. Dogs are dogs. These dogs are pit bulls, these dogs were bred for fighting, these dogs were raised in horrible isolated conditions where the people they interacted with were not kind. Today, these dogs are successful in home settings. These dogs interact with other dogs. Dogs are individuals. These dogs were individually given a chance, and I'm very glad, because it sets the precedent.
You can read more about them on http://vickdogsblog.blogspot.com/ and also on the Bad Rap web page, here: http://www.badrap.org/vick-dogs
This case still makes me sick too. I think his punishment should be a lot more serve, like life sentence severe.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what more punishment I wanted for him; I do know that I feel what he got isn't enough. And that he's working with the Humane Society and keeps saying "It isn't fair to my kids that they can't have a dog" makes me think he's going to try to plead/reduce the part of the sentence that I feel is MOST important: no dogs. For the rest of his life. Yeah, buddy, you weren't fair to your kids. Guess you should've thought of that. It's YOUR fault.
DeleteI had never heard what happened to those dogs. Glad they were able to be rehabilitated.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, isn't it, that the Internet helps like that? Twenty years ago, we would've wondered about them once in awhile, and they might be in an Associated Press article or something, but that would be it. Now? We have blogs! Well, and the book, but that doesn't cover the "where are they now?" obviously.
DeleteLike all psychopaths he will never be capable of regretting what he did, only that he got caught.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on, let's be fair. He's probably a sociopath ;)
DeleteHe does, in everything I've seen and read, seem to regret that he got CAUGHT and that there are CONSEQUENCES. Not that he hurt so many dogs.