Rehabilitation Good for Michael Vick and Man's Best Friend

Photo: Michael Vick Fighting Dogs Get "Rehab" Care

Photograph by Molly Wald/Best Friends Animal Society

Little Red, a pit bull seized from football star Michael Vick's estate, rests near staff member Ed Fritz at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah.

 

In April 2007, the news about Michael Vick’s involvement in an illegal dog-fighting operation broke.  Bad Newz Kennels was named after the town where Vick and three of his associates were raised—Newport News, Virginia—a poor and marginal community across the bay from the Norfolk shipyards. The Bad Newz Kennels (a 15-acre property) housed and trained over 50 pit bulls, staged dogfights, killed dogs, and ran a high stakes-gambling ring with purses up to $26,000.  Vick was accused of and admitted to financing the operation, directly participating in dogfights and executions, and personally handling thousands of dollars in related gambling.  This case alerted the nation to the viciousness of dog fighting that is commonplace in many communities despite the fact that dogfighting is outlawed in every state and the federal government.[1] 

The dogfighting operation bought dogs in Virginia and other states and brought them to the Bad Newsz facility, where Vick became a registered dog breeder.  The men tested dogs in fights, then shot, electrocuted, or hung dogs that did not perform well. [2]  They hosted fights in Virginia and transported dogs to other states to participate in fights.  Some dogs died in the pit, some dogs that lost fights were  executed.  On July 17, 2007, Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury with violating federal law 18 U.S.C. Section 371 “Conspiracy to Travel in Interstate Commerce in Aid of Unlawful Activities” and to “Sponsor a Dog in an Animal Fighting Venture.”  Because he crossed state lines, the federal court became involved in an activity that would have been regulated by the state.  The interstate charge is a felony with a maximum penalty of five years prison.  A charge under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) for animal fighting activities would have carried only a maximum of one year per violation.

Vick’s indictment on September 24, 2007 brought two charges: 

• One count of violating VA Code Ann. Section 3.1-796.124 which makes it a Class 6 felony to promote dogfighting for amusement, sport, or financial gain or to possess, own, train, transport, or sell any dog intended for animal fighting.
• One count for violating VA Code Ann. Section 3.1-796.122 (H), which makes it a Class 6 felony to engage in torture, ill-treatment, beating, maiming, mutilation, or killing of animals.

The judge sentenced Vick to 23 months in prison at Leavenworth Penitentiary, three years’ supervised probation during which he cannot buy, sell or own dogs, fined $5,000, ordered to pay $928,073 as restitution for the 53 dogs seized from his property and was required to enter a drug/alcohol treatment program and pay for the cost of treatment.[3]  He served 18 of a 23-month sentence.  Vick had paid a public relations firm $23,000 before entering prison.  Once released, Vick agreed to speak to various community groups as part of an anti-dogfighting campaign organized by the Humane Society of the United States and was the subject of a BET documentary series. 

New laws and tougher penalties have been enacted in the wake of the Vick Case.  Governor Kaine (VA) signed a tough new dogfighting bill into law as of July 1, 2008.  Written by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), dogfighting can now be prosecuted under the state’s RICO (“Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act”) laws, allowing prosecutors to indict dogfighting operations as organized criminal enterprises, and could send dogfighters like Michael Vick to jail for up to 20 years on a first conviction. The ability to bring a RICO case would provide specific advantages to prosecutors overseeing dogfighting investigations, including extended statutes of limitations, longer sentences, and larger fines.  Prosecutors also have the power to “seize and freeze” defendant assets prior to conviction in a RICO case.  If Vick’s charges had been part of a racketeering case, the authorities could have seized his Virginia house he used for his kennel operations and dogfights—a house he sold for well below market value shortly after the first search warrant was executed.[4] 

A team of animal behavior experts selected by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals analyzed the 49 seized dogs and then recommended whether they were suitable either to be adopted by families, trained as police dogs, placed in a sanctuary, or should be euthanized.  Only one dog was recommended for euthanasia because of extreme aggression. 

Journalist Jim Gorant described the assessment of the dogs:

The ASPCA team found fewer than a dozen of the dogs were hardened fighters.

 Two had to be put down—one was excessively violent and the other was suffering

from an irreparable injury.  Then there was a group characterized as “pancake

dogs”—animals so traumatized they flattened themselves on the ground and

 trembled when humans approached.  Another group seemed to be dogs of

 relatively friendly normal temperament who simply had never been socialized.[5]

What is really important now is that this case has had a positive effect on how canine victims of fighting rings are perceived and how they are treated following a bust. The notoriety of this case served as a large stage on which to demonstrate once and for all that dogs who have been press-ganged into servitude in dog-fighting rings are not damaged goods, as so many in the media and even many in mainstream animal welfare organizations have long proclaimed. 

Rebecca Huss, a professor at Valparaiso University School of Law, is the dog’s court-appointed guardian.  She decided which rescue organizations would receive the pit bulls, and noted that none of the groups knew they would receive money when they initially agreed to take the animals. Normally authorities euthanize dogs seized from fighting operations because of the potential danger to future owners or concerns that they will fall back into the wrong hands. The Vick dogs' situation is unique, because of the large sum of money set aside for lifetime care, extensive evaluation by animal behavior experts, and overwhelming demand by rescue groups to house the dogs.  As noted earlier, Vick was ordered to pay almost a million dollars for care of the dogs.  Of that amount, most rescue groups received $5,000 per adoptable dog.  However, Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, received $18,275 per dog, because the animals could spend a significant amount of time—if not the rest of their lives—at the sanctuary (twenty-two of the hardest-case dogs went here).  Another group who took in many dogs was BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls) in Oakland. Several other groups around the country also opened their doors to the dogs: the Georgia SPCA in Suwanee, All or Nothing Rescue, Our Pack in San Francisco, CA, Richmond Animal League in Virginia, Recycled Love, Inc. in Baltimore Maryland, the Animal Farm Foundation, the SPCA for Monterey (I was volunteering here at the time), Out of the Pits, and Animal Rescue of Tidewater in Chesapeake, Virginia.[6]

The rehabilitation of the Vicktory Dogs, as they came to be known, proved to the world that there is a future for dogs who are victims of cruelty—even the most hardcore cases.  The work at Best Friends has bolstered the work being undertaken around the country on behalf of pit-bull-type dogs such as:

• Dogs seized in fighting busts have been saved, including the majority from the Missouri 500, such as Joy who still resides at the Sanctuary.[7]
• The Vicktory Dogs case was instrumental in getting the American Bar Association to adopt a resolution calling for the humane treatment, evaluation, and proper placement of all animal victims of cruelty, including fight-bust dogs.[8]
• Florida repealed the designation of all dogs and puppies seized in fighting busts as “dangerous.”  Now these victims of cruelty can be evaluated and adopted out, not immediately euthanized.[9]

Writer Jim Gorant has written a book entitled, The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption.[10]  In The Lost Dogs, we meet these amazing animals, a number of which are now living in loving homes, while some even work in therapy programs: Johnny Justice participates in Paws for Tales, which lets kids get comfortable with reading aloud by reading to dogs; Leo spends three hours a week with cancer patients and troubled teens. At the heart of the stories are the rescue workers who transformed the pups from victims of animal cruelty into healing caregivers themselves, unleashing priceless hope.

Here is a video from my favorite Sanctuary “Dog Town” about the Vicktory dogs entitled :  “Vick Dogs in Rehab”:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080128-vick-video-vin.html

The Vicktory Dogs are pioneers in the fight against canine profiling and have caused a paradigm shift and thereby helped save countless lives. 

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[1] http://aldf.org/article.php?id=928

[2] http://aldf.org/downloads/vick_federal_indictment.pdf

[3] http://aldf.org/article.php?id.=928

[4] http://aldf.org/article.php?id=514.

[5] http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/15-can-you-teach-a-bad-dog-new-tricks.html

[6] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/39863833.html

[7] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1942950,00.html

[8]http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/2011_build/house_of_delegates/108b_2011_my.authcheckdam.pdf

[9] http://www.change.org/petitions/urge-florida-to-stop-condemning-animal-victims-of-cruelty

[10] http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lost-dogs-jim-gorant/1100484631