It Went to the Dogs: How Michael Vick's Dogfighting Compound Became a Haven for Rescue Pups

For those who love dogs and hate What Michael Vick did to our best Friends...the rest of the story.

It Went to the Dogs
How Michael Vick's Dogfighting Compound Became a Haven for Rescue Pups

Expanded Edition

Tamira Thayne

For those who love dogs and hate What Michael Vick did to our best Friends...the rest of the story.

What could possibly go wrong when a dog activist buys Michael Vick's dogfighting compound? As it turns out...everything.

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The house sat empty, an eerie white sentinel against the flat winter landscape, now guarding only whispers of the past. A six-foot white metal fence with coded entry gate lined the country road, abandoning its purpose at the property line and allowing passage to all with the temerity and curiosity to walk around.

The bullet hole in the front window went unnoticed.

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Tamira Thayne was alone, parked across the street, and early for her appointment with the Hampton Roads, Virginia realtor. Today was the day she'd tour Michael Vick's former dogfighting compound, something she'd never imagined nor particularly wanted to do.

It seemed pretty creepy, truth be told.

Tamira felt the whispers surround her, reaching out. The rescuer in her wanted to rescue the ghosts, too; embrace the broken dogs who lay undiscovered and probably buried on the property, assure them they weren't forgotten. She shuddered, pulling herself together.

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The decision Tamira would make that fateful day in February 2011 would lead not only to a home for her nonprofit's rescue dogs, but also to the most turbulent four years of her life: she faced down allegations of racism, community harassment, poisoning, and, ultimately, false charges aimed at driving her and Dogs Deserve Better from the county.

There was a reason Michael Vick felt he could get away with dogfighting in Surry County, Virginia-and why he got away with it for as long as he did...

With over 235 bw photos and documents.

Expanded, casebound edition contains 15 extra pages of before and after rescue photos.

Tamira Thayne pioneered the anti-tethering movement in America, forming and leading the nonprofit Dogs Deserve Better for 13 years. During her time on the front lines of animal activism and rescue she took on plenty of bad guys (often failing miserably); her swan song culminated in the purchase and transformation of Michael Vick's dogfighting compound to a chained-dog rescue and rehabilitation center. She's spent 878 hours chained to a doghouse on behalf of the voiceless in front of state capitol buildings nationwide. Tamira is the author of It Went to the Dogs: How Michael Vick's Dogfighting Compound Became a Haven for Rescue Pups, the Chained Gods Series, the Animal Protectors Series, Foster Doggie Insanity, and Capitol in Chains. She's the editor of More Rescue Smiles, and the co-editor of Unchain My Heart and Rescue Smiles. In 2016 she founded Who Chains You, publishing books by and for animal activists and rescuers. Tamira is an Air Force veteran who lives by a river in the woods of northern Virginia, with her husband, daughter, one dog, six cats, and hundreds of outside birds and critters she adores from afar.