NFL Star's Abused Dogs Given Reprieve

Picture Credit Belongs to Garrett Davis (picture of a caregiver at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary tries to teach abused dogs to trust people) Please read the New York Times article by Juliet Macur published Feb. 2, 2008

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is a 3700 acre sanctuary that is covered by juniper trees and sagebrush, and surrounded by canyon and red rock formations, and is just one of the places that Mike Vick's abused dogs have found reprieve and kindness. Normally when "fighting" dogs are found or rescued it cannot really be classified as a rescue because the animals end up having to be euthanized. In this case there is a reprieve for Mike Vick's abused dogs. These scarred, broken-boned, over bred animals are finally in a better place while alive. It will take a long time to re-habilitate most of them and some have been deemed not able to rehabilitate and the judge has required them by law to stay at the sanctuary until their death. The most touching stories to me are those of "Georgia" and "Little Red" both of whom had their teeth either removed or filed so that they would not fight other dogs while being forceably bred or used as bait. This is what makes them different than some of the other animals that were rescued. "Georgia" is "a caramel-colored pit bull mix with cropped ears and soulful brown eyes, offers a road map to a difficult life. Her tongue juts from the left side of her mouth because her jaw, once broken, healed at an awkward angle. Her tail zigzags. Scars from puncture wounds on her face, legs and torso reveal that she was a fighter. Her misshapen, dangling teats show that she might have been such a successful, vicious competitor that she was forcibly bred, her new handlers suspect, again and again. But there is one haunting sign that Georgia might have endured the most abuse of any of the 47 surviving pit bulls seized last April from the property of the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in connection with an illegal dogfighting ring. Georgia has no teeth. All 42 of them were pried from her mouth, most likely to make certain she could not harm male dogs during forced breeding." That is what makes me a bit emotional about Georgia's story. Almost as bad is "Little Red" "a tiny rust-colored female whose teeth were filed, most likely because she was bait for the Bad Newz fighters. Handlers cannot explain why loud noises make her jumpy." Please read the article as I cannot even attempt to give it justice.

Mike Vick picture New York Times Best Friends Animal Sanctuary abused dogs fighting scarred rehabilitate