A pit bull, likely an adult male, with a collar and green strap stands on grass in what appears to be a park or yard under natural daylight. 2:35
The Champions channel icon The ChampionsOriginal creator 110K views Save

The Michael Vick dogs who finally came home

Her owner calls her Little. Bundled in one of her coats, she passes for a small old dog, and most people never see the scars that cover her body. more

"Come on, Little," her owner says. "Off we go." Out she goes in her harness, nose pushed out the car window. Her owner is glad most people stop at the coat. "Sometimes I just don't want her to have that negative attention. I don't know how she survived or why she survived, but she did."

A dog wearing a harness leans out of a car window and looks ahead. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Little heads out with her owner, and most people never guess what she lived through.

Little came out of Bad Newz Kennels, the dogfighting ring hidden in the woods behind NFL quarterback Michael Vick's home. Police went to the property on a drug raid and found something worse. Officers turned up treadmills, whips, chains and injectable drugs, in one of the biggest dogfighting compounds they had ever seen. There were 51 dogs.

Most of the time, people never even hear about a dogfighting case. The old rule was to treat them as damaged goods and put them down. Rescue groups had long pushed back on that. This time one famous name made people pay attention, and plenty of them started asking why these dogs couldn't be saved.

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Rescuers pushed for dogs from fight busts to get a chance instead of being put down.

The rescuers kept their hopes small. They wanted to show people "you don't have to be afraid of the dogs just because of the situation that they came from." Some dogs went to Best Friends Animal Society in Utah and BAD RAP in California. Others went into family homes, and they settled in better than anyone feared. A loud noise can still make one jump, and that's about it.

Then there's Cherry Garcia, who now goes all over the country with his handler for Best Friends. His people always knew he would need time. "We also didn't think he would come this far," one says. Then, to Cherry, "Good boy."

A pit bull, likely an adult male, with a collar and green strap stands on grass in what appears to be a park or yard under natural daylight. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Her owner calls her Little.

Jonny Justice became a therapy dog who brings laughs to sick children, and he was named a Dog of the Year. Mel was handed an edible key to the city of Dallas, the only kind of key a dog really wants. Darcy Dennett's documentary, The Champions, follows these dogs, and many who see it end up thanking the people who gave them a second chance.

The last word goes back to Little. "No one will ever, ever hurt this dog ever again," her owner says. "And I think she believes that now." Then it's time to head out. "Let's go, Little. This is where she was meant to be. She knows that she's home."

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