The Lost Dogs (38 page)

Red arrived with scars and fear issues, but those were the least of his problems. The SPCA’s veterinarian found seven mast-cell tumors on his body. After surgery to remove the tumors, Red endured more than six months of chemotherapy. He began with weekly intravenous treatments that slowly tapered off. After every session, Amanda Mouisset, the woman who first fostered and then adopted him, would treat Red to his favorite delicacy: a cheeseburger.

Once he recovered from the chemo, Red went to work, helping Amanda—a trainer at the SPCA—work with aggressive dogs. Red was so gentle and relaxed, he simply sat in the training area, serving as a calming agent while Amanda and her client eased the other dog’s aggression by redirecting its focus and energy. Amanda says that while Red loved to meet new people and animals, he also seemed to be able to sense whether others were nervous around him. If he got that feeling, he just sat calmly until they were comfortable. Red shared his new home with two children, two dogs, and a cat, and his favorite place in the world was right in the middle of Amanda’s bed, where he slept between Amanda and her husband every night.

In November 2008, vets found another tumor in Red’s body. It was removed quickly and he seemed to be doing well. But in March 2010 two more tumors appeared, one in his brain and another in his neck. Amanda and her family did what they could to keep him comfortable and on April 5 he succumbed to the cancer.

After being let go from the Surry County Sheriff’s Department, Brinkman had other job offers with police outfits in Virginia, but he decided he needed a change. He accepted a training position with a private security firm that works with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi police officers. Since the spring of 2008, he has spent most of his days on the ground in Iraq.

Knorr retired from the USDA on April 30, 2009, his fifty-seventh birthday, but not before he, Mike Gill, and Brian Whisler attended a black-tie function in New York City where each was given the ASPCA President’s Award, a special commendation from the organization for his work on the case. He’s enjoying his retirement, although in the summer of 2009 his beloved best friend BJ passed. Knorr still has Surry, a beagle-collie mix given to him by Brinkman, and he has since added a new dog to the family, an Australian shepherd named Miss Jones.

The CEO of the Humane Society of the United States was quoted more than once in this book saying that the Vick dogs “were some of the most viciously trained dogs in America.” The point of using the statement was not to make Pacelle look bad, but simply to reinforce the idea of how high the odds were stacked against these dogs. While it’s popular in some circles to heckle HSUS’s policies and actions, most objective observers realize the organization does an incredible amount to help people and animals all over the world. And all you need to know about Pacelle is that he was a big enough person to later come out and recant the original statement. In 2009 HSUS changed its official policy regarding dogs rescued from fight rings. Rather than euthanasia, the group now supports individual evaluations of each dog and the effort to save those deemed worthy.

On September 25, 2007, Poindexter charged Michael Vick and all the members of Bad Newz with two Class 6 felonies in the Commonwealth of Virginia—dogfighting and animal cruelty—which carry sentences of up to five years in prison and $2,500 fines each. After several delays, the case went before the court in November 2008, where Vick pled guilty to one charge of dogfighting on the agreement that the second charge would be dropped. Poindexter argued that the time Vick served and fines paid on the federal conviction were sufficient punishment. Vick was given three years, but the sentence was suspended. He paid a $2,500 fine. The Associated Press reported that after the trial Poindexter hugged Vick’s mother outside the courthouse, saying, “At least some of this is over.”

A few weeks before the trial, Poindexter was reelected to the position of commonwealth attorney in Surry County. Sheriff Harold Brown was reelected as well. When Vick was released from federal prison in February 2009 to serve the last four months of his sentence under house arrest, a local TV station sought out Poindexter for comment. “It’s of absolutely no consequence to me,” he said. “He received a fair and just sentence and he served his time.”

She continues to work with Recycled Love and is currently completing the coursework necessary to become a certified dog trainer.

When he went to prison Vick was supporting about ten friends and relatives, including his mother and brother, and maintaining six homes and multiple cars. Without any source of income he quickly fell into debt and in July 2008 he filed for bankruptcy. On July 20, 2009, he completed his sentence and although he was still officially suspended, he began seeking a position with an NFL team. On August 13, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him to a contract that would pay him $1.6 million the first year, if he made the team, and $5 million the second year, if they chose to keep him. In other words they could drop him at any time and not owe him another dime.

After meeting with Vick, Commissioner Roger Goodell decided that the quarterback could begin practicing with the team immediately and would be eligible to play beginning with the third game of the season. As the back-up to Donovan McNabb, Vick got on the field for about forty plays, completing fifteen passes for 162 yards and two scores and running twenty-five times for 95 yards and one touchdown. His personal highlights included throwing for one touchdown and running for another against his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, on December 6, and throwing the longest touchdown pass of his career, 76 yards, against the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs.

During the season he finally reached a settlement in his bankruptcy case, the provisions of which are complex but basically asserted that over the following six years he would be allowed to keep the first $300,000 he earned and the remainder would go to his creditors.

After the 2009-2010 season Vick expressed his desire to once again be a starter, but the Eagles did not opt to trade him to a team in need of a starting quarterback. Instead, the team traded the incumbent starter, McNabb, and planned to go into the 2010 season with Kevin Kolb as the starter and Vick as the backup.

THE BAD NEWZ CASE
remains unique in that, unlike Michael Vick, most dogfighters do not have the resources to fund the care of the rescued dogs, but that does not diminish its impact. The Vick investigation and eventual plea cemented the idea for law enforcement agencies that going after dogfighters almost always leads to the arrest of those involved in other sorts of crimes, especially drug- and gun-related offenses. And going after dogfighters is popular, which could lead to more funding for such investigations and more momentum to pursue them.

In the summer of 2009, a multistate, multiagency long-term investigation led to what has been called the largest dogfighting bust in history. The ring was centered in St. Louis and ranged across seven states, and its downfall led to the arrest of almost thirty people and the confiscation of more than four hundred dogs. With the Vick case as a precedent, HSUS, ASPCA, and other rescue groups, including BAD RAP, attempted to individually evaluate each dog and to save as many of the stable and well-adjusted ones as possible. As hoped, the Vick investigation had not only shed light on the disturbing game of dogfighting, it had inspired action and begun to change the public view of pit bulls from perpetrators of violence to victims of it.

Still, it’s too soon to draw real conclusions. Many of the Vick dogs, as predicted, are doing very well, with little or no sign of lingering trauma. Others continue to struggle. Some still cannot be around other dogs and some do not fully trust people. It is possible that the worst may yet lay ahead. The Vick dogs are, after all, still simply dogs. Dogs of all breeds and backgrounds run into the street and get struck by cars, attack other dogs, and bite people every day. There are 4.7 million
⁵
dog bites recorded annually in the United States, which comes to something like twelve thousand a day. Dr. Frank McMillan, the director of well-being studies at Best Friends, who has been carefully tracking the twenty-two Vick dogs at the sanctuary since the day they arrived, says, “We don’t know yet. All the dogs have made progress, but we can’t say what it means, not only for this group of dogs but for other dogs from other fight operations. There’s still just not enough time or data.”

McMillan’s words might be somewhat disappointing for those seeking validation for the choices made, but, for better or worse, the picture will have to remain at least somewhat muddy for the time being. The truth is that the Vick case was unique, in that the available money and the notoriety presented an opportunity to do more than might otherwise have been done. It seems certain that some of the dogs saved from the Vick pack would have been put down in a different situation. That doesn’t make it right or wrong as much as it reinforces the notion that each situation, just like each dog, is unique. It remains to be seen if the Vick dogs are a fair representation of the kinds of dogs that are typically found in dogfighting operations. After all, only a handful were seasoned fighters, and many were just young goofy pooches that had led a life of deprivation.

That of course has been the point from the beginning of the effort to save the dogs—sweeping generalizations do not apply. From the start the rescuers argued that it was wrong to look at the group of fifty-one pit bulls saved from Vick’s yard and simply say “They’re irredeemable, do away with them.” No one would ever make any such sweeping statements about people.

The same goes for dogs. You cannot accurately assume that all the dogs saved from a fight bust are vicious and unstable or that all pit bulls are biting machines waiting for their chance to attack. It may be easier and less expensive to think that way, but it’s not true. Yes, if pit bulls attack, they’re equipped to do the job well—they’re strong, agile, and determined—and they may even have some genetic inclination to be aggressive toward other dogs, but nurture plays as big a role as nature and every dog is different.

The most important legacy of the Vick dogs may be the idea that all dogs must be evaluated individually. Not as Vick dogs, or fighting dogs or pit bulls, but as Jasmine and Alf and Zippy. In this regard, those forty-two dogs that remain from the Bad Newz family may no longer go anywhere near a pit, but for each of them, just as it does for all of their kind and the people who advocate on their behalf, the fight continues.

In the course of researching this book, I spoke with several people on the condition of anonymity, which makes it impossible for me to single them out for thanks. The domino effect of their request also makes it hard for me to acknowledge several other willing participants, since the process of elimination might then expose the first group. In any case, I hope the people who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences, whether they see their name listed below or not, know how grateful I am for the contributions.

Among those I can publicly recognize, the list has to start with Jim Knorr and Donna Reynolds, both of whom I pestered with a near-constant stream of queries and requests for the better part of a year. Their knowledge and willingness to share was exceeded only by their patience. Others who gave so much of themselves include, in particular, Catalina Stirling, Cris Cohen, Tim Racer, Nicole Rattay, and Marthina McClay. Beyond that I was aided by a wide-ranging group of tolerant individuals, including (in alphabetical order) Ann Allums, Michelle Besmehn, Brandon Bond, Linda Chwistek, Bernice Clifford, Sharon Corbett, Karen Delise, Lettie de Little, Paul DeSantis, Cindi Hauser, Carissa Hendrick, Maureen Henry, the Hernandez Family, Eugene Hill, Rebecca Huss, Joe Jackson, Mary Jarvis, Diane Jessup, Randy Lockwood, Frank McMillan, Melinda Merck, Karen Reese, Sara Varsa, Mike Wilson, Roo Yori, and Steve Zawistowski. The list of key facilitators includes Beth Brookhouser, Stacey Coleman, Anita Kelso Edson, John Polis, and Laura Taylor.

At
Sports Illustrated
I’d like to thank Terry McDonell and Jim Herre for allowing me to take on the project, and Chris Stone, who was instrumental in helping the original article make it into the magazine. Chris Hunt edited that piece and Rebecca Sun fact-checked it. My good friends Maura Fritz and Brad Dunn read early drafts of the book and gave me invaluable feedback, and Bill Syken helped make sure I didn’t get anything wrong. As always, my fond appreciation goes to my agent, Matthew Carnicelli, and his assistant, Adrienne Lombardo, at Trident, and I’d also like to thank everyone at Gotham who worked on the project, particularly Patrick Mulligan, who first approached me about a book, and Jessica Sindler, who nursed the manuscript along with a welcome equanimity and incisive commentary.