I learned about the dogs and their stories and I started to wonder what the breed was really like. I started working with pit bulls when I learned about the Michael Vick case as a freshman. Barks of all pitches combine and bounce off the walls, funneling down the aisle. Some bark and some just sit and watch, their heads on a swivel.
#FLICKR GALLERY DOG DINEEN FULL#
The back kennels of the Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo, Calif., are full of pit bulls. No next time, no redemption, just overwhelming shame and no future. When a player wins, he is rewarded, and there is a certain level of pride. Imagine a sport that no one wants to play. San Francisco is one such city that recently enacted BSL. Some California cities have also implemented BSL that requires all pit bulls to be spayed or neutered. Some of those were returned to their owners, but, without the legal right to put them up for adoption, the shelter euthanized 2,135 pit bulls. Between 20, they impounded 3,232 pit bulls and pit bull mixes. Over a decade later, Denver Animal Care and Control was recording new statistics for pit bulls within the city limits.
Chow chows and their mixes accounted for 210, Labradors and their mixes accounted for 167 and poodles and their mixes accounted for 20. In 1992, pit bulls accounted for nine reported bites within the city limits. In 2000, the city of Denver passed a law that made it illegal to “own, possess, keep, exercise control over, maintain, harbor, transport or sell any pit bull within the city.” According to Your Dog newsletter, dog bite data kept by Denver Animal Care and Control does not match the law. Winners walk away with bragging rights and pride, but it is not like other sports.Īside from a reputation issue, in many areas pit bulls are subject to BSL, or breed specific legislation. There are magazines about the winners and the latest fights. It’s a competition with champions and trophies. Dog fighting thrives on the human desire to observe violence, but be safe from its effects. Bull fighting, cockfighting and fox hunting are all included in this category. It also opened the world’s eyes to a breed surrounded by misunderstanding, myth and fear.ĭog fighting is a blood sport, which is a competition that involves violence against animals. This scene opened the world’s eyes to one of the largest illegal sports in the world. He did it for money, for respect, but most of all, he did it for fun. There it was, in the clear, for the entire world to see. By the window they found a single white dog tooth. Investigators found a blood-stained rug dumped in the woods and blood stains on the floor and on the walls of the largest shed. But four years ago, USDA officers and Virginia State Police kicked that door down and the world saw everything. It concerned only a few men and their stake in the money.
What went on inside that shed was kept quiet. It was just him, his friends and his dogs. Vick knew this, but he also knew that in the woods behind his house in Surry County, Va., no one was looking. He was arguably football’s most exciting player and when he hit the field, fans across America watched his every move. At the time, Vick was the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons and nothing short of an icon. A man named Michael Vick slammed it in the face of the world. Leaving everyone, even the trees, in the dark.Ī “hero” shut that door. They watched on those nights in the offseason when, at around 2 a.m., two pit bulls would follow two men up a path to the biggest of the four sheds.
#FLICKR GALLERY DOG DINEEN WINDOWS#
They saw the sheds painted pitch black, windows and all.
In the shadows of the white Virginia mini-mansion, the basketball court and the above-ground swimming pool, these trees saw everything that no one was supposed to see. If trees could talk, the woods behind 1915 Moonlight Road would have some stories to tell. EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to the nature of this subject, this story may be difficult for some readers.
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