Surprisingly, 47 of the 51 dogs rescued from Vick's property survived, even though they were initially written off as unsalvageable even by some ardent animal-rights activists. The majority have become family pets, agility champions, and even therapy dogs.
Twenty-two of the dogs, the tougher cases, ended up at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. Some have been adopted, and the sanctuary continues to work with the others on their "people and dog skills" with the goal of finding them good homes.
Gorant, who tells the story not only of Vick's dogs but of countless other neglected and abused pit bulls euthanized in crowded shelters across the nation, hopes to transform the public's perception of a maligned breed.
The book, an outgrowth of Gorant's popular 2008 Sports Illustrated cover story, rocketed to ninth place on the Amazon top-sellers list in its first week of publication two weeks ago (by Monday it had fallen to 66th). It was the top-selling title on Amazon among books on animal care and pets.
Gorant says he decided to pitch the article after seeing a newspaper item about efforts to save the Vick dogs.
"I followed the trial, but I never thought about the dogs," Gorant says in a phone interview. "What happened to them? Could you put fighting dogs with other people's dogs and children? I thought there was a really interesting backstory."
His cover story on Dec. 29, 2008, generated 488 letters and e-mails, more response than any other Sports Illustrated story that year.
A book deal was imminent.
