The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption

THE PEOPLE

BILL BRINKMAN

After being let go from the Surry County Sheriff’s Department, Brinkman had other job offers with police outfits in Virginia, but he decided he needed a change. He accepted a training position with a private security firm that works with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi police officers. Since the spring of 2008, he has spent most of his days on the ground in Iraq.

JIM KNORR

Knorr retired from the USDA on April 30, 2009, his fifty-seventh birthday, but not before he, Mike Gill, and Brian Whisler attended a black-tie function in New York City where each was given the ASPCA President’s Award, a special commendation from the organization for his work on the case. He’s enjoying his retirement, although in the summer of 2009 his beloved best friend BJ passed. Knorr still has Surry, a beagle-collie mix given to him by Brinkman, and he has since added a new dog to the family, an Australian shepherd named Miss Jones.

WAYNE PACELLE

The CEO of the Humane Society of the United States was quoted more than once in this book saying that the Vick dogs “were some of the most viciously trained dogs in America.” The point of using the statement was not to make Pacelle look bad, but simply to reinforce the idea of how high the odds were stacked against these dogs. While it’s popular in some circles to heckle HSUS’s policies and actions, most objective observers realize the organization does an incredible amount to help people and animals all over the world. And all you need to know about Pacelle is that he was a big enough person to later come out and recant the original statement. In 2009 HSUS changed its official policy regarding dogs rescued from fight rings. Rather than euthanasia, the group now supports individual evaluations of each dog and the effort to save those deemed worthy.

GERALD POINDEXTER

On September 25, 2007, Poindexter charged Michael Vick and all the members of Bad Newz with two Class 6 felonies in the Commonwealth of Virginia -dogfighting and animal cruelty-which carry sentences of up to five years in prison and $2,500 fines each. After several delays, the case went before the court in November 2008, where Vick pled guilty to one charge of dogfighting on the agreement that the second charge would be dropped. Poindexter argued that the time Vick served and fines paid on the federal conviction were sufficient punishment. Vick was given three years, but the sentence was suspended. He paid a $2,500 fine. The Associated Press reported that after the trial Poindexter hugged Vick’s mother outside the courthouse, saying, “At least some of this is over.”

A few weeks before the trial, Poindexter was reelected to the position of commonwealth attorney in Surry County. Sheriff Harold Brown was reelected as well. When Vick was released from federal prison in February 2009 to serve the last four months of his sentence under house arrest, a local TV station sought out Poindexter for comment. “It’s of absolutely no consequence to me,” he said. “He received a fair and just sentence and he served his time.”

CATALINA STIRLING

She continues to work with Recycled Love and is currently completing the coursework necessary to become a certified dog trainer.

MICHAEL VICK

When he went to prison Vick was supporting about ten friends and relatives, including his mother and brother, and maintaining six homes and multiple cars. Without any source of income he quickly fell into debt and in July 2008 he filed for bankruptcy. On July 20, 2009, he completed his sentence and although he was still officially suspended, he began seeking a position with an NFL team. On August 13, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him to a contract that would pay him $1.6 million the first year, if he made the team, and $5 million the second year, if they chose to keep him. In other words they could drop him at any time and not owe him another dime.

After meeting with Vick, Commissioner Roger Goodell decided that the quarterback could begin practicing with the team immediately and would be eligible to play beginning with the third game of the season. As the back-up to Donovan McNabb, Vick got on the field for about forty plays, completing fifteen passes for 162 yards and two scores and running twenty-five times for 95 yards and one touchdown. His personal highlights included throwing for one touchdown and running for another against his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, on December 6, and throwing the longest touchdown pass of his career, 76 yards, against the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs.

During the season he finally reached a settlement in his bankruptcy case, the provisions of which are complex but basically asserted that over the following six years he would be allowed to keep the first $300,000 he earned and the remainder would go to his creditors.

After the 2009-2010 season Vick expressed his desire to once again be a starter, but the Eagles did not opt to trade him to a team in need of a starting quarterback. Instead, the team traded the incumbent starter, McNabb, and planned to go into the 2010 season with Kevin Kolb as the starter and Vick as the backup.