November 23, 2012

Behind the Scenes Story of the Infamous Michael Vick Dogs

Whatever happened to the dogs confiscated from Michael Vick's dog fighting operation? Is it true that pit bulls are used in fighting because they are natural born killers and as a breed to be feared and avoided? What is dog fighting all about in the first place? Susan's guest is Jim Gorant, a senior editor at Sports Illustrated and the author of The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption Today, you'll learn the truth about pit bulls, dog fighting, what the Vick dogs experienced at his compound, how they avoided almost certain death after being taken and where they are today.

Episode Segments:

Wild About Pets: Understanding Dog Fighting Jim takes us inside the world of dog fighting, and tells us what the dog experience. He will describe how they are trained to fight, and what happens to them if they don’t.
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Wild About Pets: The Truth About Pit Bulls In part two, Jim and Susan discuss the misconceptions about the breed, and how they are wrongly characterized as being aggressive towards people, after being considered one of the best family pets not so long ago. Then - the discovery of the Michael Vick Compound and what was found there. (photo by Cris Cohen)
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Wild About Pets: After the Compound We find out how some of the rescued dogs adapted to being normal dogs & pets, and how they are doing now. (photo by Cris Cohen)
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Links to Related Websites:

Look While You Listen! Visit Wild About Pets.net to view the photos Susan & her guest are discussing, and for other useful links.

Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Jim Gorant Jim Gorant's career in magazine publishing began in 1990 with a job at Good Housekeeping and led him to Sports Illustrated, where he is currently a senior editor. In the interim he’s bumbled over seemingly every inch of the vast terrain that exists between those titles, holding staff positions at GQ, Men's Journal, Popular Mechanics and Power & Motoryacht. In the course of his daily responsibilities at those magazines and during two stints as a freelancer he's fished everywhere from Alaska to Venezuela, snowmobiled 12,000 feet into the Idaho Rockies, dived on the Great Barrier Reef and played golf with honest-to-goodness celebrities. The high point came when he was escorted off the grounds of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club (a.k.a. Wimbledon). On the more serious side, he’s investigated anti-aging strategies, infant vaccinations, and the psychology and response to child abductions. His writing has appeared in more than three dozen national magazines ranging from Men’s Health, Outside, and Popular Science, to Worth, the Robb Report, and the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, among many others. As an editor he’s tinkered with the scribblings of everyone from Mike Lupica to Dan Quayle and worked on two SI books, Tiger 2.0 and The Golf Book. Jim's original SI cover story on the dogs of Bad Newz kennels won the Humane Society’s Genesis Award for magazine writing. He is also the recipient of the John Southam Award and of multiple writing awards from both the Golf Writers Association of America and Boating Writers International. Prior to The Lost Dogs, Jim authored Fanatic: 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do Before They Die, a title that despite its length doesn’t come close to capturing the book’s essence (it’s not a list book), and he is also the co-author of Fit For Golf (with Boris Kuzmic). Shortly after his birth in Brooklyn, New York, Jim's family decamped for the greener pastures of northern New Jersey. Other than the four years when he escaped to college in the distant metropolis of Philadelphia, he’s spent his entire life in the Garden State, where he still lives with his wife and two children. Despite the legacy of his residence, none of his friends or family have been captured on or accurately represented by reality TV programming. The Lost Dogs on Facebook The Lost Dogs Website

Michael Vick Dogs at Best Friends