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KANAB - A charter plane carried 22 dogs here Wednesday for a second chance at life.
NFL quarterback Michael Vick raised the dogs for fighting. Now Vick is doing time, and the dogs are under the care of Best Friends Animal Society in a redrock canyon five miles north of this southern Utah city.
The turboprop airplane, chartered by Best Friends, arrived shortly after 3 p.m. and the portable kennels containing the dogs were unloaded onto a truck for transport to their new home.
"We want them to get settled and comfy so we can start working with them and see their personalities emerge," said Patty Hagwood, the director of animal care for Best Friends, the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country.
She said, if possible, the dogs will be rehabilitated so they can be adopted out.
"This is the best possible chance for them," said Hagwood, one of two Best Friend staff members to travel with the dogs on the flight. "We hope to have them on couches and beds of loving families."
Wednesday's move completes the process of relocating 47 animals seized from Vick's Surry County, Va., property to eight rescue organizations across the country.
The organizations were recommended by the dogs' court-appointed guardian, animal law expert Rebecca Huss, and approved by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson last month.
Vick is serving a 23-month sentence in the dogfighting conspiracy. Vick and three co-defendants raised pit bulls and trained them for fighting behind his home. Dogs that did not perform well were executed by hanging, drowning, electrocution and other violent means.
Michelle Besman, Best Friends dog care manager, was on the tarmac to help unload the kennels. She said the hounds will go through the society's program for traumatized dogs.
This is not the first time the animal society has had to deal with dogs suffering behavioral problems, and Besman has high hopes for them.
"These dogs are resilient," she said. "They don't feel sorry for themselves, so we have to give them credit for that and that they can come through to begin a new life."
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* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.