The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption

Last year I read Wallace by Jim Gorant and loved it. Since it was one of my favorite books of the year I knew that I had to read this book too.

My concern before starting was that the stories of how Michael Vick and his friends tortured and mistreated the pit bulls they used for dog fighting would be too much to stomach. Although there are some horrific details about what some of the dogs went through, it is mostly presented in a manner of what evidence the police were able to collect. In addition, the main focus of the story is not on what a horrible human Michael Vick is, but on how the amazing dogs rescued from his home were rehabilitated. In fact, Vick is not mentioned much at all after the first chapters.

I knew from watching shows show more like The Dog Whisperer and Pit Boss, reading books like Wallace, and meeting many sweet and gentle pit bulls throughout my life that these are dogs with an undeserved bad reputation. This book solidifies that line of thinking. I was surprised when the author shared that in a litter of 12 pit bull puppies you would be lucky if you could train one to be a fighter because it works against years of evolving as pack animals. Even though their purpose was fighting, the dogs taken from Vick did not need to be rehabilitated because they were aggressive; they needed to be socialized and trained to live in a house with a family.

The story follows the dogs from rescue to rehabilitation, but we also get to meet the army of people who work to help dogs like Vick's every day. Difficult to read at times, this book left me with a good feeling knowing that for every bottom feeder like Vick in the world there are 100 good ones. show less

The Lost Dogs is not a book I would normally read. Yet, I love animals. Please indulge a brief personal history as I explain why I would turn away from this book.

I have been involved with greyhound rescue and fostering for five years. I currently have three adopted ex-racing hounds who tug at my heart each day. Envisioning their previous life living 24/7 in a small kennel, brief interludes out for eating and exercise, then the 40 mph sprint around a track. With any luck without injury they survive the race and will race again as long as they win. But the losers face an uncertain future. With luck a few find their way into a loving home. I have fostered greyhounds as they transition from life at the track to pet life. I advocate for the show more hounds and participate with my dogs at Meet and Greets whenever possible. Animal cruelty and animal suffering breaks my heart. Helping the hounds future is paramount and the memories of what I know of their past I bury deep in my memory whenever possible. It hurts too much.

When I was approached by TLC Tours to read and review The Lost Dogs, by Jim Gorant for this tour I was reluctant. I was afraid to read about this case and didn’t feel I would be able to endure a book about dogfighting. I don’t condone either dog racing or dogfighting and having read about the horrors of both, I become weak for these sweet helpless animals, their pain and suffering too unbearable to think about.

Jim Gorant chose to focus on the rescue and redemption of the fifty-one dogs that were taken from the Bad Newz Kennels owned and operated by Michael Vick. This is not a story about Michael Vick. It is about his pit bull victims. Those he had chained and trained to fight. The background for the case, the discovery and arrest are detailed with just enough to satisfy the curious. From the onset, Gorant shows his professionalism
by taking the story beyond the initial abuse to focus his story on the future of these helpless dogs. He brings voice to the resilient dogs who endured savage conditions of hatred, and then experienced the love of a warm toasty blanket. You will not forget Little Red and Jonny Justice as they warm the hearts of so many. I was most touched by little Jasmine, as she takes each baby step to trust again. Her cautious spirit and sweetness will never leave my thoughts. The Lost Dogs embraces the possibilities with the insight of those who cared.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010]. show less

I would like to preface this review by saying that no dog - regardless of breed - deserves to be abused or mistreated. And some of the descriptions of what happened at the Bad Newz kennels are quite graphic and heartbreaking, though what can you expect when someone names their kennel 'Bad Newz'?

However, my rating for this book is because of the very obvious bias it has in favor of pit bulls, as well as the cheesy writing itself. Michael Vick is a terrible person. Some people say that pitbulls are garbage dogs for garbage people, and Michael Vick and people like him certainly fit the definition of garbage people.

However, it's the pitbull advocates/sympathizers that I also have an issue with. Since the Vick case, the pitbull lobby has show more campaigned hard for pitbulls to be seen as family dogs. There has been an upswing of pitbull attacks (and fatalities) since then. That is not a coincidence.

https://www.animals24-7.org/2017/04/27/pit-bull-advocates-owe-michael-vick-bigti.....

https://www.animals24-7.org/2015/10/03/pit-bull-awareness-day-month-mark-33-year....

https://time.com/2891180/kfc-and-the-pit-bull-attack-of-a-little-girl/

https://www.dogsbite.org/dangerous-dogs-pit-bull-myths.php

If this book was written in a true-crime-novel style, with a neutral mindset, presenting the facts of the Michael Vick case, I would have given this book a higher rating, but given the obvious bias of this book, and the consequences of Michael Vick's actions on the increase in serious injuries and fatalities from pitbulls since 2007, I can not in good faith endorse this book. (I've had several close calls with pits myself - completely unprovoked and from supposed good owners, so I also speak from personal experience)

Again, I do not advocate for abuse of ANY breed of dog (or other animals) but I can not advocate for the breeding and ownership of dogs that were bred for fighting (whether it be pitbull, cane corso, dogo argentino, etc etc) or books that try to downplay the danger inherent in fighting breeds.

As for Michael Vick himself, the consequences he had to pay were nowhere near severe enough. (Details can be read here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Vick#State_prosecution_and_sentencing ) Vick should have been given a lifetime ban from sports, but he was playing football again in 2009. Shame on the assholes who signed him onto their teams.

Vick has done basically fuck-all to make up for his vile actions. The only thing he's done is to lobby for H.R. 2492, the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act, which would establish federal misdemeanor penalties for spectators of illegal animal fighting and make it a felony for adults to bring children to fights.

Misdemeanor??? And banning children from fights but not the adults themselves??? Really???

Fuck Michael Vick, fuck the pitbull lobby and victim-blamers, and fuck the people who keep (or kept, as Vick's apparently retired) allowing this garbage person to play pro sports. show less

As I was nose deep into Gorant’s harrowing tale of many a bloody and brutal murder at the cruel hands of dog fighters, I was feeling October’s spookiness creep around me. My husband was out, the baby was asleep and all I could think of was the horrible acts of insane killing that went on only a few states above the one I now call home. Only slightly less chilling than the actual telling, was the fact that only months before the awful truth came out to the media about the Vick property, we had been so head-over-heels in love with “our” QB that we’d almost named our own dog “Mike”.

The fall had made its initial but rapid descent into cool Appalachian weather and was making itself known, loud and clear against the windows via show more the trees outside. Our older, albeit smaller dog, Teddy (Ted Williams being name-safe and very well dead), was stationed, in his cat-like position, curled up like a jellybean, high atop a couch cushion on the other end of the living room. Donnie (not renamed after the fact but, thankfully, never actually named for the former Falcons player) was nowhere to be seen.

I read on, clenching my teeth in fear as I thought about the cruel acts, described with a sports-writer’s cool, frankness. Just about the time this frankness was being applied to the ways (now less a spoiler than a scandal and sensation) in which the “dud dogs” or the ones who either couldn’t wouldn’t or shouldn’t be fought, were “let go”, I heard a thump. A heart wrenching, mind racing, Halloween-season “thump”.

My aforementioned heart stuck in my throat and I froze. I sat waiting for Teddy: The Fearless Wonder to rise up and attack. I waited for, the yet unseen, Donnie to act on some thread of what people so often refer to as this instinct within pit bulls to rip-tear-ruin.

As neither dog was heard from, I surrendered to my role as chosen house guardian. I shakily sat up from my previously warm hideout on the couch and peered down at where it sounded like the “thump” had originated. Suddenly, my heart slowed and I burst out into full out laughter.

I had found Donnie.

My rather ferocious “Bully” had been closer than I’d thought, though, perhaps he’d been dreaming of a far away place. He tends to sleep rump-up, melting off of the couch, slowly, very slowly, over the course of the evening. He had, indeed, melted right off of the couch. By this point, he had woken up and, being only bruised regarding his ego, was licking my face to his heart’s content, most likely attempting to curtail my giggles.

This has been a typical story in our day-to-day existence over the past four years following Donnie’s arrival into our lives.

Weird to think, then, that it took a horrific story like the one Gorant wrote about in Lost Dogs, to bring any bit of pit magic to the media. Of course, it will take many more such tales (tails?) to make much of a dent, unfortunately and with each heartwarming story of dogs rescued and rehomed, there will be those for whom a story of a dog fighting ring will only solidify the “monster myths” of pit bulls.

For me, The Lost Dogs was less about the political storm of who was right or who was wrong or what kind of person gets behind a statement like: Oh, please, they’re just dogs”. It was about people and puppies and second chances for both. Or sometimes neither.

I loved learning about the breed and the rescue culture (the specifically pit-bull versus “any dog” rescue) from the eyes of person who hasn’t been steeped inside the world of BadRap and BSL’s, yet. I often find that dog books are written by people who are dog-people or who were “saved” by pit bulls. Gorant’s books didn’t give that impression. It shed much needed light on the Pit-Rescue work being done nation wide but it could and should be read by the less fanatic pit-people.

It will be hard for people of dog leaning (or people who don’t like dying and stuff) to read the first bit but I promise it will be worth it. And Donnie will thank you. After he has collected himself from his recent battles with our (he is sure) very tricky couch. show less

When authorities first raided Michael Vick’s home in rural Virginia, the NFL player claimed that he had simply allowed the wrong people to take advantage of him, and that had no knowledge of the dog fighting on the premises. Despite the mounting evidence, – buried dog carcasses, testimony by the gardener who witnessed the horrific treatment of dogs, blood splatters all over the room used as the fighting pit, and so on – Vick continued to proclaim his innocence. Only when his business partners spilled all the facts in the hopes of getting reduced sentences did Vick realize that he was backed into a corner.

The bust of the dog fighting operation on Vick’s property was the result of cooperation between state and federal authorities; show more it was the result of hard work by people who refused to give up and pushed on in spite of the obstacles. Because of Vick’s notoriety, the case also received intense media coverage and brought much needed attention to the plight of dogs involved in such operations. Because of Vick’s wealth, the fine he was forced to pay gave his dogs another chance at life, whereas most fighting dogs are usually euthanized.

I was hesitant to read the The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant. I love animals, and reading about the cruelty they have to endure at the hands of people like Vick is sometimes too much to bear. However, The Lost Dogs was so well written and so sensitive to the subject matter that I can honestly say it was one of my favorite books this year.

Yes, The Lost Dogs is about dog fighting and all that that entails, but graphic descriptions are sparse and are by no means the focal point of the book. One third of the book is spent discussing the events leading up to the bust, the investigation and the ensuing ramifications for Vick and his friends. The rest of The Lost Dogs is dedicated to the dogs that were rescued and their journey back from the hell that they experienced. Ultimately, the book is one of hope and a tribute to the people who dedicated their hearts and their time to helping these dogs survive. show less

This book was exactly what I hoped it would be. It's divided into three sections:

1) The dog fighting stuff. In appropriately descriptive detail, Gorant narrates the events that led up to the bust of Michael Vick's dog-fighting operation.

2) The legal stuff: What to do with the dogs? At the time of Vick's arrest and the seizure of 51 fighting dogs, it was assumed that all of the dogs would be put down. A few people in the animal rescue community suggested that that didn't have to be true, and they placed nearly every dog.

3) Rehabilitating the dogs. Gorant tells what happened to a handful of the dogs that were placed in foster homes, adopted and sent to live in rescue centers. At the end of the book, every single dog is listed, along with show more a blurb about what happened to them.

Throughout the book, Gorant intersperses chapters from the point of view of one of the more traumatized dogs. When I first started reading the book, more than a year ago, I found this cloying and off-putting. He can't really know what the dog was thinking. But when I picked up the book again this weekend, I read the whole thing in one day. I just went with it. This is that dog's story as Gorant imagined it, and I was moved. show less

A great book with some shaky areas

The Lost Dogs is at its best when it deals in facts: introducing the players in the legal case, for example, and explaining forensic evidence and dog-handling protocols in clear, quick prose. The first half of the book falls mostly into this category: fascinating and easy to follow, keeping the reader engaged through the legal talk with reminders about what the dogs faced during their time at Bad Newz.

Unfortunately, the quality breaks down somewhat when addressing people's thoughts and feelings, dog emotions, and other "abstract" concepts, either coming off too stiff and detached or over-compensating with sentimentality. Some of the descriptions of the dogs' lives in foster homes or in rescues fall into show more this trap.

Gorant's journalistic style suits a more objective tone. He is able to evoke strong images and emotions and create tension without overdoing it, which is what makes the low points frustrating. Still definitely worth a read for pit bull lovers (vindication!) or critics (this case might change your mind). show less