ohmidog!

Jasmine — the pit bull who went from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation to life with a young family of four in suburban Baltimore — graces the cover of this month’s Sports Illustrated.

One of three Vick dogs turned over to the Baltimore rescue organization Recycled Love for rehabilitation, Jasmine ended up in the home of Catalina Stirling, a 35-year-old artist and Recycled Love volunteer who, upon first meeting Jasmine, crawled into the cage where the dog cowered beneath a blanket.

The Sports Illustrated article looks at what has become of the 51 dogs seized from Vick’s Virginia estate — dogs that even some animal welfare organizations were saying had been so brutalized that euthanasia, not rehabilitation, was the only solution.

Jasmine was likely born at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels and, because of her youth, was a “bait dog,” used to provide practice matches for the fighting dogs, spending the rest of the time chained to a car axle in the nearby woods.

During evaluations of the Vick dogs, Jasmine was being considered for sanctuary with Best Friends in Utah, where the most severely traumatized dogs were sent, when Recycled Love volunteers went to see her and the other dogs being held at the Washington (DC) Animal Rescue League.

Stirling, seeing the dog under the blanket, crawled into the cage and began massaging and whispering to her, and Jasmine seemed to respond. The dog was turned over to Recycled Love, then sent to live with Stirling, her husband, two young children, two other dogs and a cat.

For months, Jasmine sat in her cage in Stirling’s house and refused to come out. “I had to pick her up and carry her outside so she could go to the bathroom,” Stirling says. “She wouldn’t even stand up until I had walked away. There’s a little hole in the yard, and once she was done, she would go lie in the hole.”

It was almost four months before Jasmine would get out of the cage by herself. Visits from another Vick dog living in Maryland, Sweet Pea, helped draw Jasmine out of her shell — enough so that after six months Stirling could finally take both dogs for a walk in a park near her house.

Jasmine is still fearful, the article says. She almost always walks with her head and tail down. She won’t let anyone approach her from behind, and she still spends most of the day in her pen, sitting there quietly, even thought the door is open.

In the end, 47 of the 51 Vick dogs were saved. Two died while in the shelters. One was destroyed because it was too violent; and another was euthanized for medical reasons. Twenty-two dogs went to Best Friends. The other 25 have been spread around the country. Ten went to California with BAD RAP. Fourteen of the 25 have been placed in permanent homes, and the rest are in foster care.

(To  learn more about the Vick dogs, you can check out ohmidog!’s earlier incarnation, Mutts.)

A trainer from Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah will appear on today’s Ellen Degeneres Show with one of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s dofighting operation.

John Garcia, from Fredonia, Ariz., will appear with Georgia, one of 22 pit bulls sent to the sanctuary after being rescued from Vick’s dog fighting operation in Virginia, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison for his part in a dogfighting conspiracy. He and three co-defendants raised and trained pit bulls for fighting. Poor-performing dogs were executed.  

Read more »

Pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation in Virginia are now gracing the labels of wine bottled by a Southern California winery.

Georgia, Handsome Dan, Curly and other pit bulls rescued from the ring and sent to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, are featured on a line of boutique red wines from Carivintas Winery, a company that combines wine-selling with philanthropy.

The Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection features colorful portraits of 22 dogs confiscated from Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels that now live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah.

Each bottle includes a portrait of one of the dogs on the label. On the back, instead of a description of the wine, there’s a brief story about each four-legged friend, according to an Associated Press story.

Read more »

The heck with cabinet members. Even before President-elect Obama chooses who will help him run America, his family will probably be making its choice for “First Pup” — a decision that’s drawing plenty of attention, and mountains of unsolicited advice.

It started long before his election. When news broke that Obama had promised his children the family would get a dog once the campaign was over, the suggestions began pouring in.

Get a mutt, urged PETA. “There is something deeply wrong and elitist about wanting only a purebred dog,” the organization wrote in a letter urging Obama to adopt a homeless shelter dog.

Best Friends says more than 50,000 signed its online petitions urging the Obamas to adopt a rescue dog. “The Obama family’s decision to adopt will be a great example, and will result in many dogs and cats being saved from euthanasia across the country. This is exactly what we hoped for when we launched obamafamilydog.com.”

During the campaign, Michelle Obama pledged on Entertainment Tonight that the family would adopt a dog — not necessarily a mutt — from a shelter or rescue group.

Despite that, the American Kennel Club, which also held a poll on the Obama family dog, is urging the family to stick with a purebred.

In August, more than 42,000 Americans cast their votes — at presidentialpup.com — in an American Kennel Club poll to determine the right breed of dog for the Obamas. Read more »

Michelle Obama pledged on Entertainment Tonight this week that, once the presidential campaign is over, the family — first or not — intends to adopt a dog from a shelter.

The Obamas’ promise to their children that they’d get a dog, once it became public, led to three animal welfare organizations and thousands of petitioners urging them to adopt a dog, rather than buy a purebred from a breeder or pet store.

PETA, Best Friends Animal Society and the Humane Society of the United States had all publicly urged the Obamas to adopt a dog.

“Senator, no one needs to tell you that this country is proud to be a melting pot and that there is something deeply wrong and elitist about wanting only a purebred dog. Millions of Great American Mutts — the dog that should be our national dog — are set to die in our nation’s extremely overcrowded pounds and shelters for lack of good homes. When you are ready, please adopt a homeless pound puppy,” PETA said in a letter to Obama.

Best Friends says more than 50,000 signed its online petitions urging the Obamas to adopt a rescue dog.

“The Obama family’s decision to adopt will be a great example, and will result in many dogs and cats being saved from euthanasia across the country. This is exactly what we hoped for when we launched obamafamilydog.com and we hope you feel as proud as we do about this development,” Best Friends said.

Nearly all of the almost 1,000 dogs seized from a Parkersburg breeding kennel have been transported to out-of-state shelters and rehabilitation facilities, where many of them will soon be available for adoption.

Only 61 dogs remain in an emergency shelter set up by the Humane Society of Parkersburg, said Maryann Hollis, executive director. Most are dachshunds, Jack Russell terriers and Yorkshire terriers. Hollis said the society had received more than 300 applications from people interested in adopting them.

“Local residents get first priority to thank them for being so supportive,” Hollis told the Charleston Daily Mail.  “The demand to adopt one of these precious pups has been tremendous. The compassion of the local community is like nothing I have ever seen before.”

Officials say 982 small-breed dogs and puppies were taken from Whispering Oaks Kennel on Aug. 23 after owner Sharon Roberts agreed to give up the dogs and cease her breeding business permanently.

They dogs taken to a warehouse in Parkersburg, then relocated to shelters and rescues from Utah to Virginia.

Those include: The Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington D. C.; Virginia Beach SPCA in Virginia Beach, Va.; Dashchund Rescue of North America; Danville SPCA in Danville, Ky.; Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah; North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, N.Y.; The Sterile Feral in Georgia; the Ohio Federation of Humane Societies located throughout Ohio; Luv4K9s in Dayton, Ohio; Citizens for Humane Action in Columbus, Ohio; Lucky Star Cavalier Rescue in California; Society for Improvement of the Coalition of Stray Animals; Purebred Rescue of Ohio and A Forever Home in Chantilly, Va.

Both Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States were on the scene over the weekend to assist with the temporary housing of the dogs.

For more information about adopting the West Virginia dogs, contact the Humane Society of Parkersburg  at 304-422-5541, extension 116.

Here’s a clip from Dogtown, the National Geographic Channel series that will begin its second season Friday (Sept. 5 at 9 p.m.) with a special two hour episode, “Saving the Michael Vick Dogs.”

Viewers get to follow the recoveries of four of the most challenging dogs seized from the former Atlanta Falcon quarterback’s Virginia dogfighting ring — Cherry, Meryl, Denzel and Georgia — as experts at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary work to help them overcome their violent pasts.

Dogtown is part of the 33,000-acre animal sanctuary in southern Utah. Best Friends took in 22 of the 47 dogs seized from Vick — the dogs that were viewed as the least likely to be able to be rehabilitated.

Dogtown’s philosophy — “There’s no such thing as a bad dog” — seems to have worked with Vick’s dogs. Even Meryl, who was ordered by the court to stay at Dogtown permanently, has gained new social skills and confidence.

The sanctuary hosts hundreds of dogs, along with cats, horses, rabbits, goats and other farm animals — as many as 1,500 at one time. A staff of about 60 oversses them, taking care of the medical needs, training and rehabilitation, with the hope that as many as possible will be placed with new owners.

For those that don’t make that transition, Best Friends continues to care for them for the rest of their lives.

After focusing on the Vick dogs, the National Geographic program this season will look at some of the other guests at Dogtown — including a hound named Wylee who was hit by a car and lost the use of his front legs; a golden retriever with a learning disability, a border collie with dislocated hip, and a Weimaraner paralyzed with anxiety.

Best Friends Animal Society was among the animal welfare organizations lending a hand in shutting down the West Virginia puppy mill from which 1,000 dogs were removed over the weekend.

According to an article on its web site, the Utah-based organization had been working with the Parkersburg Humane Society since May, when the agency called for assistance in the case.

Best Friends says it also advised the Wood County prosecutor’s office in the case, and recently requested assistance from the Humane Society of the United States and other agencies to help with coordination of the operations at the local emergency shelter.

The fight against puppy mills, mass breeding operations that supply pet stores and fuel internet sales throughout the United States, is a priority initiative for Best Friends, which in the past two years led several other puppy mill busts, according to the article.

Puppy mills produce an estimated four million dogs in the U.S. each year for the pet sales market; meanwhile, an estimated six million homeless dogs and cats are killed in the U.S. each year, Best Friends points out.

The Best Friends web site also has an ongoing blog about the effort, written by one of members of the rescue team.

(Photo: Puppy at Whispering Oaks Kennels, courtesy of Best Friends)

Here’s some raw video from the Humane Society of the United States of officials shutting down the Whispering Oaks Kennel near Parkersburg, West Virginia, where about 1,000 dogs were seized over the weekend.

The dogs were surrendered by the kennel owner after county officials executed a search warrant. Sharon Roberts, who owned the Internet-based business agreed to give up the dogs and refrain from operating a breeding business in exchange for not facing charges.

Her husband, Edwin R. Roberts, however, was arrested by the Wood County Sheriff’s Department Sunday on charges of assault of a police officer and obstructing a police officer, according to The Intelligencer.

It took two days to move all the dogs into a Parkersburg warehouse for temporary housing.

Some of the volunteers helping to move and care for the dogs were from Parkersburg. Others were from the Humane Society of the United States, Best Friends Animal Society, the Humane Society of Missouri, the Tampa Bay Disaster Animal Response Team and United Animal Nations.

The dogs were kept in wire mesh enclosures, most about 3 feet by 3 feet, authorities said.

Carrie Roe, the Humane Society of Parkersburg’s board president. said dogs who have lived their lives on wire mesh often have difficulty learning to deal with other surfaces.

“These dogs have had very little human attention, they fight for it. Dogs from puppy mills typically don’t do well with other dogs. These dogs have never been on a leash,” she said.

To donate or volunteer to help with the 1,000-dog rescue, call the Humane Society of Parkersburg at 304-422-5541.

Since 1999, BAD RAP has been working to rehabilitate pit bulls and their image – including some of those seized from Michael Vick’s Virginia estate/dogfighting ring.

While Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah took in the toughest cases — including the vicious beast pictured above — BAD RAP took in 13 of the Vick dogs, and so far homes have been found for ten of them, according to a profile of the group in last week’s Los Angeles Times.

The Vick dogs are among more than 400 pit bulls BAD RAP founders Tim Racer and Donna Reynolds have rescued since they started picking up strays in Chicago on winter nights.

After relocating to Oakland, the two commercial artists focused their rescue efforts on pits and formed Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls, or BAD RAP, to help reverse the dogs’ undeserved image.

“I give BAD RAP a lot of credit for what was accomplished with the Vick dogs,” said Rebecca Huss, a Valparaiso University law professor who was appointed by federal prosecutors to be guardian of the Vick dogs. “They were there at the forefront.”

Racer and Reynolds point out that a few generations ago pit bulls were considered America’s dog: The dogs helped sell bonds during World War I, were used to advertise RCA record players, and one, Petie, served as the mascot of “The Little Rascals,” the popular children’s TV show.

Now, thanks to misguided breeding and training, the animals are often raised to fight. They are by far the most commonly found breed in shelters nationwide, and hundreds of thousands are euthanized each year.

Only one of the Vick dogs was put down because of its temperament. Twenty-two, deemed either unsocialized or dog-aggressive, were sent to the Best Friends. The rest were placed with other groups, including Baltimore’s Recycled Love.

For a look at some of the other Vick dogs, click here.

(Photo: One of the Vick dogs at Best Friends, courtesy of Best Friends)