FEATURED AUTHOR: JIM GORANT
AUTHOR OF: THE LOST DOGS
Michael Vick’s Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption
BY JIM GORANT
Q: What made you decide to write a book about the Michael Vick dogs?
It was a chance encounter. I came across a small article in the summer of 2008 that mentioned the dogs were being rehabilitated and put up for adoption. I wondered how you rehabilitated fighting dogs and would they be placed in home with other dogs and kids? Also, where had they been all this time (the initial raid took place in April 2007)? I started looking into it and the more I did, the more fascinating the whole thing became. I wrote an article for Sports Illustrated about it and the article turned into the book.
Q: How many of the Vick dogs did you meet and spend time with?
I’ve met almost half of them, about 20 of the 47 that were saved from Bad Newz Kennels.
Q: Is there any one dog that stood out to you regarding the abuse they all suffered?
More than any of the dogs, Sweet Jasmine (The Lost Dogs’ cover girl) had an impact on me. Like many of the dogs, her biggest problem was fear. She was so shut down around people that in the beginning she had to be carried outside to relieve herself. She came an incredibly long way but still struggled to be a “normal dog,” and you could see that she wanted to be, that the instincts were there, but that she couldn’t quite make herself do it. Her difficulties and her inner struggle were so visceral that it was hard not to be moved by her.
Q: Did your perception of Pit Bulls change after meeting the dogs and writing the book?
Absolutely. I went into this knowing nothing about pit bulls other than what you read in the headlines, but in the process of writing this book and spending time with the dogs I came to realize that you can’t really make those broad generalizations. One of the themes of The Lost Dogs is that every dog is an individual with the potential for good and bad and each must be approached as such. It’s an important thing to remember, not only when it comes to dogs.
Q: What do you hope that people will learn from reading your book?
As a journalist and writer, I didn’t really set out to teach anything. I simply wanted to tell a true story, and I think my sort of neutrality made the book more powerful in the end. There are, of course, things people can infer from that truth, among them the idea of judging individuals not groups, the power of everyday people to effect change, and the healing power of compassion.
Q: What is your personal opinion of Michael Vick?
One of the great things about the new paperback edition is that I got to write an afterword, which I used largely to address the Michael Vick question. It’s hard to boil all that down to a few sentences, but I think the relevant points are that he did some abhorrent things, but at the same time his undoing shined a huge light on what had been an unexamined topic and has helped raise awareness and increase prosecution. We have to grab onto those positives and move forward the best we can.
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