He listed this address as his home address, and that gave them the cause to get a warrant and go in and go for a drug search, and then they found the dogs when they were there on the drug search.ĭAVIES: Right, and without dwelling too much on this, my recollection of the case is that Vick initially denied any involvement, and then as more and more people involved cooperated with authorities, he admitted his guilt but had a negotiated plea arrangement in which he never said under oath what he personally had done, whether he had personally killed dogs. GORANT: It was cousin of Michael Vick's, Davon Bodey(ph), who was picked up on drug charges and that. And so it was actually a suspicion of drugs that led authorities to the property eventually, but there they discovered the dogfighting apparatus. They started, I believe, in 2001 or in 2002, and they were found out in 2007.ĭAVIES: Right. And at the time that the authorities arrived, they found 66 total dogs - 51 pit bulls, some with fresh injuries, some with clear evidence of having been dogfighting - and a lot of training equipment, a - actual pit, and some bloodstained walls and things of that nature, and clear evidence of a dogfighting ring.ĭAVIES: And as the case developed, it emerged that Vick, once he'd become a wealthy, professional athlete, had bought this rural, secluded property, built a nice house on it, built the pens, built the dogfighting pit, and then maintained it and ran the operation for - what, about four years or so, right? JIM GORANT (Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Author, 'The Lost Dogs'): Well, the basic facts - is that he participated in and funded a dogfighting ring on his property in Southern Virginia. Jim, about a third of this book deals with the Vick case itself.

Well, Jim Gorant, Stephen Zawistowski, welcome to FRESH AIR. Also with us is Jim Gorant, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, who chronicled the pit bull story in a book called 'The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption.' Gorant and Zawistowski spoke with FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies. Stephen Zawistowski, a psychologist and ASPCA animal behavior specialist who evaluated and worked with the Vick dogs. In a few minutes, we'll meet Hector, a pit bull rescued from Vick's compound who's become a certified therapy dog, and his owner and dog trainer Andrew Yori.īut first, we'll hear from Dr. Many found new lives as pets, and others live peacefully with other dogs in animal sanctuaries. It turns out there was an extraordinarily successful effort to rehabilitate the dogs. Far less attention has been paid to the 51 pit bulls seized from Vick's Virginia fighting compound, which he'd named Bad Newz Kennels. Ever since NFL star Michael Vick was arrested and charged with dogfighting in 2007, debate has raged over how serious his crimes were, and whether he should have been allowed to return to football when he was released from prison.

Wallace by Jim Gorant