I've been following the story of the Michael Vick dogs at the Best Friends site but this recent Sports Illustrated article covers several of the dogs that did not go to that Utah animal sanctuary. It also provides a nice overview on how the dogs ended up not getting euthanized after the case went to trial and where they all ended up. Here's a bit:
By most estimates Jasmine is around four years old, which means she was most likely born into Bad Newz, and her life there fit the kennel's name. A few of the dogs, probably pets, were kept in one of the sheds. The fighters and a handful of dogs that Bad Newz housed for other people lived in the outdoor kennels. The rest -- dogs that were too young to fight, were used for breeding or were kept as bait dogs for the fighters to practice on -- were chained to the car axles in the woods.
The water in the bowls was speckled with algae. Females were strapped into a "rape stand" so the dogs could breed without injuring each other. Some of the sheds held syringes and other medical supplies, and training equipment such as treadmills and spring bars (from which dogs hung, teeth clamped on rubber rings, to strengthen their jaws). The biggest shed had a fighting pit, once covered by a bloodstained carpet that was found in the woods.
According to court documents, from time to time Vick and his cohorts "rolled" the dogs: put them in the pit for short battles to see which ones had the right stuff. Those that fought got affection, food, vitamins and training sessions. The ones that showed no taste for blood were killed -- by gunshot, electrocution, drowning, hanging or, in at least one case, being repeatedly slammed against the ground.
It's impossible to say what Jasmine saw while circling the axles deep in the woods, but dogs can hear a tick yawn at 50 yards. The sounds of the fights and the executions undoubtedly filtered through the trees.
"Multiple studies have shown that if you take two mammals, say rats, and put them in boxes side by side, then give the first one electric shocks, the reaction of the second one -- in terms of brain-wave and nervous-system activity -- will be identical," says Stephen Zawistowski, a certified applied animal behaviorist and an executive vice president of the ASPCA. "The trauma isn't limited to the animal that's experiencing the pain."
I've written about this story before and I'm a realist - we had a pit bull when I was a teenager (a much beloved dog) and I know how strong they are. I also now own my third dog (first a husky mix, then a black lab and now some sort of lab/rottweiler/shepherd mix) that tops 80 pounds. I get that big dogs are tough and strong and I also get that if you don't train a big dog right from the beginning they can be aggressive. (I've been in the middle of several dog fights that my dogs did not start but ended up in. The most recent one was almost two years ago and found me with the puppy literally screaming behind me, the lab on a leash fighting for all he's worth and the crazed bulldog that charged us going crazy all over the lab and trying to get to the puppy.) (My lab was 13 at the time - I still can't believe how tough he was and how well he hung on until the other owner pulled his dog off.)
Okay, that was a long aside.
My point is not to pity fighting dogs although I do think it goes without saying that their lives are largely pitiful. What intrigues me is more how we got to this point - where PETA and the ASPCA and other animal welfare agencies would say that because a dog comes from an atmosphere of fighting it must be put down, period. There is no need to consider exceptions (dogs like Jasmine that might have never even fought or been anything other than "bait") because they are not exceptional. They are fighting dogs and that is all that matters. In the articles about the Vick dogs I see and hear a lot about wolves, which are also largely dismissed by the public due simply to their wolfishness. In Alaska in particular every time the moose or caribou populations go down it is wolves in the area that are first to blame and wolf control that is the first option. (And when predator control means killing wolf cubs in their den, then that is what is done.) This long standing desire to control wolves and then cultivate wildness in domesticated dogs - only to then control it - really mystifies me. I mean, why wolves and dogs at all? Why did bears get the Goldilocks story and wolves get stuck with the murderous rampage in Little Red Riding Hood?
What gives?
From wolves, to a variety of dogs (dobermans to german shepherds to rottweilers to pit bulls and now to "big black dogs" in general) it seems that humans in general and Americans in particular have a desire to rewrite this myth of fearsome dog-like creatures every few years. We are yet again fighting over the Northern Rockies wolf remaining on the Endangered Species List (it was delisted, a whole bunch were killed, then it got put back on the list last summer and now there's a fight to get it off again) simply because we can't seem to figure out how to live with wolves in the world. (For a good article on the struggle of westerners to live with wolves see this piece from High County News.)
If I was still in grad school I would be all over this topic for a thesis: "The Collision of History and Myth in Man's Relationship with the Canine World". (Sounds good, eh?) It makes no sense to me why we - as humans - must make certain animals out to be more than they are. We hunt, but wolves are the vicious predators, we abuse and neglect dogs but they are the ones that can not be trusted or redeemed. We even carry our racism to how we view the animal world. (For the record I had a big black dog and he was awesome - my problem with black labs now is that they look too much like Tucker and it hurts to see that similarity.) (Jake was a big brown dog and Hondo - aside from being the silliest dog I've ever had - is a big brown/tan/white/black mash-up.)
There is much more to this mythology of wolves and dogs than I think we realize. What does it mean that we cast them all aside so easily; what does it mean that we always manage to make them what is bad in the world as we are the ones who so casually end their lives? What does it say about us that in one story the bears ate porridge and in another the wolf ate grandma?
Interesting stuff, and well worth the time to consider why first wolves and people, and now big dogs and people, can't seem to get along.
[Post pic of Handsome Dan and Little Red two of the Michael Vick dogs living now at Best Friends.]
