Photo: Bob Levey/Getty
The last dog rescued from Michael Vick’smassive dogfighting operation in 2007has died.
The news was confirmed that Frodo, a pit bull who was approximately 15 years old, “transitioned” on Saturday “to be with the rest of the dogs from the group.”
TheFacebook post,fromanimal welfare non-profit BAD RAP, explained that Frodo “was the last of 48 brave survivors from that game changing case” which led to Vick, now 41, spending 18 months in federal prison.
“The last 14 years of [Frodo’s] life were spent being pampered like a prince with the Ramirez family and dogs,” the post read. “Sweet Frodo - How we loved him. He was one of the bravest survivors we’ve ever met.”
The Facebook message went on to detail two other dogs rescued from the Virginia Bad Newz Kennel dogfighting ring who died recently.
RELATED VIDEO: Dogs Finally Meet Again After 18 Months
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In the spring of 2007, police raided Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels and found 49 pit bulls, malnourished and injured, chained to old car axels in the woods of Surry, Virginia.
There were also the remains of dozens of dogs who’d been killed — all part of a vicious dogfighting ring.
Later that year, a federal judge sentenced Vick, then 27 and the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, to 23 months in prison and fined him nearly $1 million for victim restitution and the lifetime care and rehabilitation of the 47 surviving dogs (two eventually needed to be put down). Vick served 18 months in prison.
After he served time, Vick returned to professional football for seven more seasons in 2009, playing for three different teams before ending his career and becoming a sports analyst.
Vick also worked to rehabilitate his image post-prison, becoming an animal rights activist with the Humane Society of the United States in 2009, working specifically with the organization’s End Dog Fighting campaign.
Ann Chynoweth, then Senior Director of the HSUS Animal Cruelty and Fighting Campaign, told PEOPLE at the time that the organization believed Vick “paid his price for his crime,” and what’s important was that he was working to end dogfighting.
source: people.com
