SI article: The Good News out of The Bad Newz Kennel

The Sports Illustrated Article on Mike Vick's Dogs is out.

All in all, not a bad article.  They've certainly published worse.

There is a lot of emphasis on the dogs - -as it should be. A lot of the stories of the dogs, and their new families.  How most are doing really well - -although several are still somewhat fearful. None show signs of aggression.

Typical of news sources that aren't close to dogs, they give PETA too much credit. PETA is a big name among the general population, but any organization that kills 97% of the animals they intake in a year can't be considred on the forfront of animal advocacy.

Donna Reynolds and Tim Racer from Bad Rap -- who were instramental in saving these dogs -- are widely quoted in the article. That's a good thing. 

One paragraph sticks out -- with Donna talking about what they found when they first met the dogs:

"We were surprised at how little aggression there was," says Reynolds.  Many of the dogs had all but shut down. They cowered in the corners of their kennels or stood hunched with their heads lowered and their tails between their legs and their feet shifted nervously....As far as they knew, bad things happened when people came. Bad things happened when they were led out of their cages.

This is a pretty common response to the abuse that these dogs suffered...lack of positive socialization with humans is certainly hard on dogs.

The article focuse on the reality, that of the 51 dogs found on the property, 51 were saved. (Two died in the shelter, one was euthanized for being too aggressive, and another euthanized for medical reasons).  Twenty two of the dogs ended up at Best Friends -- 17 of which may eventually be adopted. The other 25 went to rescue groups across the country -- 14 of which have been placed in permanent homes. Several are being used in therapy dog situations.

In spite of the dogs' success, PETA is sticking to their guns and saying that all of the dogs should have been killed.  That's sort of their answer for everything.

All in all, I think this story was fair. The dogs are doing great. Sometimes fearful, but great. This is all a complement to the folks at Bad Rap and the other rescue groups that saved, and rehabbed, the dogs.

Go check out the aricle -- and don't miss the photo gallery.

Update:  And here's Donna's reaction over at Bad Rap. And she's right - -the magazine certainly owed us one.

Comments

[krislars]

They SURE DID owe us one...not that the damage they did w/ 'the other' article will ever be undone I'm afraid. This is definitely a start. Worth writing to them to commend them on a more balanced article (and one with heart!).

As always, cheers to BADRAP (yeaaaah!) and jeers (boooo!) to PETA.

[KC KS Kills Dogs]

AMEN! That's all I have to say.

[anon]

Absolute Joy
The pictures of the dogs being...dogs are just incredible.
Here`s hoping that more get to enjoy a dog`s life because of what BadRap and others have done.

[linskykitty]

The story was very good. I did hate to see the comment that people questioned rehabbing the Vick dogs because it would take resources away from other animals dying in shelters...kind of pitted "problem dogs" against "normal dogs", as if you could divide them into two simple groups like that. Also took the blame off the shelter system for killing, like it's the rescuers fault, picking the wrong dogs to save. That just kind of rubbed me the wrong way, a little. It also annoyed me that they basically said, to paraphrase, that if PETA thinks a dog should be put down, that animal must have serious problems...HA. They support BSL which kills non-problem dogs every day, to say nothing of, as you mentioned, their own record.

[linskykitty]

One more comment on the idea that it's somehow not worthwhile to spend time rehabilitating dogs when there are so many that don't need to be...I think we see this sentiment expressed in society as a whole, whether it be about animals or people. It makes me think of something I read years ago, by the author Anthony Burgess. He was commenting on his book, "A Clockwork Orange," and how the American printing (and the film) left off his original ending, in which the anti-hero gives up his violent ways and goes about living his life. He said that Americans, in particular, seemed to be married to the idea of non-changing, unending evil. I think we see this a lot in our punitive measures, the oft-repeated sentiment "build more jails," and I even read a lot of negative comments from animal advocates when I looked up a news article you referenced a couple months ago about Tio Hardiman's program in Chicago; a lot of the reader's comments on that news website were only calling for the punishment of the youth dogfighters, and not praising the rehabilitation. Rehabilitation, of dogfighting youth, of drug addicts, of criminals in jails, of DOGS, is positive for those involved and for the community. It makes people better and more fit to contribute to society. Rehabbing dogs and people together, which we are seeing more and more of with troubled youth and prison inmates, has been beneficial to both species; it saves the animal and gives the prisoner something to care about, something bigger than themselves. My co-worker commented that how can you get a violent thug to care about the dogs they may harm in dogfighting when some of them don't even value human life? Sometimes, as in these rehab programs, it works in reverse; you get them to care for an animal, and they begin caring for others. It is too easy to write off our failures, it is typical of our society where everything is disposable -- Like one of my favorite songwriters, Ani Difranco said about the death penalty, though I think it applies to these other examples, "that way they can kill me / say it's not murder it's a metaphoe / we are killing off our own failure and starting clean." You shouldn't just write people or these dogs off; you have to believe that lives are worth saving.

[Brent]

Linsky,

Michelle went to a community crime prevention program a couple months ago. The national expert that was there was interesting in that he said that statistically, you cannot punish your way to zero crime. It is only through rehabilitation that you can get someone crime-free.

I think this is the glory of Tio's program -- is that it changes people's hearts and minds -- not try to punish people into behaving the way we want them too. I think many who don't understand his program are overly harsh on it because of the connection to HSUS...

At the end of the day, it is very difficult to convince these youth's that they should treat these animals with respect and compassion -- when as a society, our first instinct is to kill them.

[linskykitty]

Yes, I think the idea of punishing to zero crime has definately been proven impossible, especially if you have seen some of these programs on Nat Geo and other channels showing that the criminal and gang activity level in our prisons is through the roof; it actually seems like these people are becoming more hardened criminals.
As a society, unfortunatly, animals are viewed by many as a luxury and disposable, as I said before, like everything else. A couple weeks ago, I had to attend class because of a check from over a year ago that I let bounce and didn't take care of in time. During this class, we were given a pretend budget we had to balance, of a family whose expenditures exceeded their income. I was surprised how many people would have been willing to sacrifice the imaginary pets in the scenario, even before they gave up things like cable TV. This really saddened me, that there is no distinction for some between a life and a material possession. The one thing that kept me going, when I was unemployed over the summer, and my roommate had been laid off, was my pets. Even when we were struggling, keeping them fed took priority. No one ever tells a person with a child, if they hit hard times, "Well, you can't afford them now, you need to get rid of them." The idea is that yes, times are hard, but they will get better. It is hard to convince some people, as you said, to treat animals with compassion, when people think of them on the same level as their TV.