It is so hard to put The Lost Dogs down! This is one of the most interesting books I read in a very long time. Truth is I do not read books much. It takes a lot to keep me interested. I maybe read anywhere from 2 – 5 a year and this will be the second book I finish this week. I just finish reading A Meal to Die For by Joseph Gannascoli. For those of you that watched the Sopranos he played Vito. I bought the book from him while on the Sopranos tour in NYC. I tried to keep it as neat as possible while reading it since he signed it. The book was a good read of those that like stories about the mob. It did keep me in suspense. I really enjoy biography book and true stories about people have gone through to get to where they are today. Maybe that is why I love The Lost Dogs so much. My compassion for animals and the underdog has me hooked.
In my reading yesterday I learned that one of Michael Vick’s dog fighting associates suggested they give the dogs away that refused to fight. Vick wanted them killed instead and participated in the killing. Many very brutal deaths. At one point in the book I slammed it down after reading about how he killed one of the dogs. Currently in the media Michael Vick wants to get a dog for his daughter and right now he is banned from owning animals. May people believe he put in his time and understands how wrong he was but when I read this book I truly believe there is no way this man is cured. Sure he may not turn his daughter’s dog into a fighting dog but I do believe there will be abuse by hand. Someone like him that used a dog as a jump rope, banging it against the ground until she was dead does not change.
Again the question comes up to people as to why should we care about animal abuse. This part of the book provides another explanation.
“Law enforcement was beginning to realize this was a common connection: Bust a dogfight and they were bound to find people guilty of other crimes, not just drug users and gun toters but drug dealers and illegal-weapons traffickers. Studies had also shown that animal cruelty is lined to other types of domestic battery, including spousal and child abuse and it desensitizes witnesses to violence.”
I also love this part of the book that provides a brief history.
“So even as they became better fighters, these dogs became friendlier and more responsive to people. There are few breeds in the world that thrive more on human attention. The desire to please, to get the pat on the head, is part of what drives theme to persist in the pit. It is also why they were always known as great family pets. In the 1800s the breed had a nickname in Great Britain: nanny dogs, because they were so great with children. Petey of The Little Rascals, a Staffordshire terrier, was said to have been chosen specifically because the producers wanted a dog that would be good around kids. Buster Brown’s dog, Tige was also a pit bull, as a World War I hero Stubby, who helped sniff out German spies and find wounded soldiers as part of the 102nd Infantry.”
So how, with this great name, did the pit bull end up being known as born killers? I do not wonder where the dogs went wrong but where humans went wrong. Again, Gorant pulls through to my question.
“In the 1980s the number of pit bulls grew and as it did so did the number of pit bull incidents. Combined with their fighting past, the dogs quickly earned a bad reputation, and when a few savage mauling took place, they became outright pariahs. Suddenly, any pit bull incident became the equivalent of a share attack, guaranteeing a flush of screaming headlines and creating and urban mythology.”
So where did humans go wrong? Stupid people. My true belief is these dogs land in the hands of bad people. Men who need a pit bull to make them feel more manly and make up for other areas they are lacking in. These people who know nothing about pit bulls when it comes to caring for them and training them to be wonderful additions so society.
With all the bite statistics I have to wonder how many of the people bitten was it their own fault. I’ve been bitten by four dogs. One was my childhood dog, Snickers. She was a Springer Spaniel. I still have a scare on my hand to show where I was bitten. The bite was my fault. We introduced a new dog into the family and they broke out into a fight. I tried breaking it up and was an accidental casualty.
The second dog I was bitten by was my uncle’s dog. A German Shepherd. Again my fault. I was petting him on the head when my dumb ass cousins and brothers were lighting off fireworks that scared him. He bit me on the arm. Not hard. No blood was drawn. Ok…so my cousins’ fault.
Third was the pit bull that came at me when I was walking Jack. He barley bit down and I do blame incompetent owners on this one.
My pissy little Shih Tzu bit me a few times on purpose. I was doing something to make him mad and my fault for not training him better.
I am just about halfway through the book. More of my thoughts and great writing by Jim Gorant to come!
In my reading yesterday I learned that one of Michael Vick’s dog fighting associates suggested they give the dogs away that refused to fight. Vick wanted them killed instead and participated in the killing. Many very brutal deaths. At one point in the book I slammed it down after reading about how he killed one of the dogs. Currently in the media Michael Vick wants to get a dog for his daughter and right now he is banned from owning animals. May people believe he put in his time and understands how wrong he was but when I read this book I truly believe there is no way this man is cured. Sure he may not turn his daughter’s dog into a fighting dog but I do believe there will be abuse by hand. Someone like him that used a dog as a jump rope, banging it against the ground until she was dead does not change.
Again the question comes up to people as to why should we care about animal abuse. This part of the book provides another explanation.
“Law enforcement was beginning to realize this was a common connection: Bust a dogfight and they were bound to find people guilty of other crimes, not just drug users and gun toters but drug dealers and illegal-weapons traffickers. Studies had also shown that animal cruelty is lined to other types of domestic battery, including spousal and child abuse and it desensitizes witnesses to violence.”
I also love this part of the book that provides a brief history.
“So even as they became better fighters, these dogs became friendlier and more responsive to people. There are few breeds in the world that thrive more on human attention. The desire to please, to get the pat on the head, is part of what drives theme to persist in the pit. It is also why they were always known as great family pets. In the 1800s the breed had a nickname in Great Britain: nanny dogs, because they were so great with children. Petey of The Little Rascals, a Staffordshire terrier, was said to have been chosen specifically because the producers wanted a dog that would be good around kids. Buster Brown’s dog, Tige was also a pit bull, as a World War I hero Stubby, who helped sniff out German spies and find wounded soldiers as part of the 102nd Infantry.”
So how, with this great name, did the pit bull end up being known as born killers? I do not wonder where the dogs went wrong but where humans went wrong. Again, Gorant pulls through to my question.
“In the 1980s the number of pit bulls grew and as it did so did the number of pit bull incidents. Combined with their fighting past, the dogs quickly earned a bad reputation, and when a few savage mauling took place, they became outright pariahs. Suddenly, any pit bull incident became the equivalent of a share attack, guaranteeing a flush of screaming headlines and creating and urban mythology.”
So where did humans go wrong? Stupid people. My true belief is these dogs land in the hands of bad people. Men who need a pit bull to make them feel more manly and make up for other areas they are lacking in. These people who know nothing about pit bulls when it comes to caring for them and training them to be wonderful additions so society.
With all the bite statistics I have to wonder how many of the people bitten was it their own fault. I’ve been bitten by four dogs. One was my childhood dog, Snickers. She was a Springer Spaniel. I still have a scare on my hand to show where I was bitten. The bite was my fault. We introduced a new dog into the family and they broke out into a fight. I tried breaking it up and was an accidental casualty.
The second dog I was bitten by was my uncle’s dog. A German Shepherd. Again my fault. I was petting him on the head when my dumb ass cousins and brothers were lighting off fireworks that scared him. He bit me on the arm. Not hard. No blood was drawn. Ok…so my cousins’ fault.
Third was the pit bull that came at me when I was walking Jack. He barley bit down and I do blame incompetent owners on this one.
My pissy little Shih Tzu bit me a few times on purpose. I was doing something to make him mad and my fault for not training him better.
I am just about halfway through the book. More of my thoughts and great writing by Jim Gorant to come!
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