As odd as it may seem, Michael Vick may be the best thing that ever happened to the pit bull. He gave the forum to discuss this and make it possible to get the message out there that these dogs are not what they’ve been made out to be in the headlines, that they really are just sort of dogs. And a lot varies from each one to another and then how they’re raised and socialized and all of these issues that go around them. You can find the sweetest, most loving pit bulls in the world and you can find other dogs that are as mean as you want.
I’ve often noted the same irony myself. I spent a decade involved in pit bull rescue groups with my ex, rehabilitating and adopting out a couple dozen dogs and keeping several ourselves (which all stayed with me after I split with her). The most stubbornly antagonistic, narrow-minded people I ever had to deal with were the members of my own family, who were firmly convinced that the stories they’d read and the yellow journalism TV shows they’d seen were all they needed to know; these dogs were rotten to the core and it would only be a matter of time before they ripped my throat out just to watch me die. That only began to change after Vick’s case made the news, when they finally got to see the dogs as victims rather than cartoonish monsters.
Nevertheless, I still would laugh uproariously at any calamity to befall that scumbag. Maybe that doesn’t speak well of me, but hey, I never claimed to be into all that Christian forgiveness business.