With much pain in my heart and tears in my eyes I am writing about a sweet little girl that I have silently been reading up on.
Fay was truly an angel in disguise, deep disguise. Upon first sight many people reacted with shock, horror and even disgust to her face. Deeply scarred, missing lips, teeth sticking out, she looked like something out of a horror movie. But if you had the courage to look beyond the face, into the eyes, there was something else there.
Fay was a true Pit Bull. She was one of many dogs taken from a dogfighting ring. Dogfighting is an extremely INhumane "sport" that only humans could have thought up. Yes, in the wild there are fights. Alphas are challenged, wandering dogs chased away, mates are won and food is fought over. But this is all for survival and rarely ends up in the bloody mess that humans seem to get a kick out of. Most of the time a wild dog fight is just a bunch of snarling, growling, posturing and maybe a few snaps. Every once in awhile it goes farther than that if neither dog will submit. But in a dogfighting ring the dogs are not ALLOWED to submit. A dog that will not fight is either torn apart as a bait dog or is tortured and murdered by the people training them. There is no escape, nowhere to run, and no mercy. Pit Bulls have been used and trained for this for decades because of their strength, stubbornness and their determination to obey and please their masters at ALL costs. That is the key that many people do not know about. Are they vicious and dangerous dogs? Not at all. They can be dog aggressive because that is what many people have bred them for, but they were also bred to be totally loyal and obedient to their human masters.
And THAT is why I say that Fay was a true Pit Bull. Even after the horrors, abuse and neglect that she faced in her short life, Fay loved. Fay was gentle and sweet and gave kisses to people young, old, healthy or disabled. She saw no disfigurement or ugliness in others. She did not see skin colour or weight. She didn't care if you were gay or straight. All she saw was that someone might have the potential in them to love.
At some point in Fay's life it is assumed that her lips were badly damaged in one of the fights. The rescuers believe that rather than taking her to a vet to have her taken care of, her owners instead used a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining lips leaving her with a damaged and exposed face. Gale Frey, the woman who was fostering her, reports that despite all that was done to her, Fay remained excited about meeting new people and exploring new places. She speaks of Fay's tail wagging so fast that it was just a blur whenever she got to do a meet n' greet and how her torn apart face would break into a big "pittie smile" with joy.
Do you have it in you to be treated like that and still learn to trust again? I know I don't. I've been hurt in the past and to this day I have extreme trust issues. Even when someone has PROVEN to me that they are worthy of my trust, I am suspicious and doubting. But not Fay. She lived to love and that is more than most people can ever say about themselves.
Fay died on December 28th after having her third surgery to try and fix some of the damage done to her. She has taken many pieces of many hearts with her, and I hope that she has time to greet all that loved her when it is our turn to cross that bridge. I hope that, along with my own animals that have gone before me, she is there to welcome me to the Land of peace, joy, love and laughter. A place where no one ever feels pain and is never made to fight for their right to be alive and to be safe. A place where humans can act more like the Pit Bulls that much of the world is labelling "dangerous" and "vicious". If we could ALL act like TRUE Pit Bulls, like Fay, this world would be a MUCH better place.
Sue
AKA The Bully Breed Buddies' Mom
If you'd like to learn more about Fay, help some of the other dogs who badly need homes, fostering and donations, or if you'd like to drop Gale Frey a line telling her how much her work is appreciated please visit...
Gale Frey
We heard about Fay from Carlos as well. She sounds like a real sweetheart. People who fight dogs are the worst sort of scum.
ReplyDeleteThe New Yorker had an article about dogfighting (and football) not long ago that was pretty interesting, especially this part:
"What happens at Best Friends represents, by any measure, an extravagant gesture. These are dogs that will never live a normal life. But the kind of crime embodied by dogfighting is so morally repellent that it demands an extravagant gesture in response. In a fighting dog, the quality that is prized above all others is the willingness to persevere, even in the face of injury and pain. A dog that will not do that is labelled a “cur,” and abandoned. A dog that keeps charging at its opponent is said to possess “gameness,” and game dogs are revered.
In one way or another, plenty of organizations select for gameness. The Marine Corps does so, and so does medicine, when it puts young doctors through the exhausting rigors of residency. But those who select for gameness have a responsibility not to abuse that trust: if you have men in your charge who would jump off a cliff for you, you cannot march them to the edge of the cliff—and dogfighting fails this test. Gameness, Carl Semencic argues, in “The World of Fighting Dogs” (1984), is no more than a dog’s “desire to please an owner at any expense to itself.” The owners, Semencic goes on,
'understand this desire to please on the part of the dog and capitalize on it. At any organized pit fight in which two dogs are really going at each other wholeheartedly, one can observe the owner of each dog changing his position at pit-side in order to be in sight of his dog at all times. The owner knows that seeing his master rooting him on will make a dog work all the harder to please its master.'
This is why Michael Vick’s dogs weren’t euthanized. The betrayal of loyalty requires an act of social reparation."
This is an incredibly beautiful tribute to our special girl, and to all victims of dog fighting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful rememberance for this very special dog. Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteWhat a very incredible tribute for that wonderful dog. Thanks for letting the world know.
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