Dog Days

The whole Michael Vick episode makes me sick.

I bring this up because last night I watched a special the Animal Channel aired about the whole ordeal. I seldom watch TV, but I love dogs with a passion. How anyone could be so cruel to such awesome animals is beyond me.

I walked away with feelings of optimism and sadness. Let me explain . . .

The authorities treat high profile cases like this differently. They usually euthanize fighting dogs, no questions asked. In this case, however, they brought in animal control experts to assess the dogs. This is almost never done. But that's not what shocked me the most . . .

The experts expected to find vicious fighting dogs. What they found were cowering, whimpering, underfed and otherwise abused animals. But that's not all.

What surprised me the most was this: When they put these dogs with other dogs, they didn't fight. In fact, they behaved like most dogs I've seen. Some even played. It was also obvious that they craved human affection.

They behaved just the opposite of what we've been told. Ruined for life? Not hardly. A little scarred, maybe. In fact, of Vick's 53 living dogs, only 2 had to be euthanized. The rest now live with families. One works as a therapy dog in nursing homes! Imagine—a former killer sitting on Grandma's lap. And being quite loveable.

Maybe we can use the Vick case for some good. What if we focused on rehabilitating these dogs, and not just killing them outright?