National Network for Equitable Library Service

A world-renowned animal trainer recounts her fight to win custody of a pit bull unfairly condemned to die in this "wonderful" true story (The Wall Street Journal). Writer and dog trainer Vicki Hearne first explored the human-animal bond in her classic bestseller Adam's Task. In Bandit, she returns to that theme, but on a more intimate scale, telling the tale of a pit bull terrier who bit three people and ended up sentenced to death by her home state of Connecticut. Employing a unique combination of psychology, philosophy, sociology, and dog training theory, Hearne recounts her successful campaign to rescue Bandit from "doggie death row," a legal battle that extended well beyond the particulars of his case. As she fought to prove that no dog is inherently vicious, Hearne quickly discovered the factors that contributed to Bandit's behavior and set about releasing the essentially "good dog" that lay within. A powerful inside account of the so-called pit bull wars that continue to rage to this day, Bandit is "simply one of the most perceptive works about the social contracts between humans and animals ever written" (Kirkus Reviews). "Brilliant, fiery. Hearne captures a hundred nuances of the relation between people and animals. Anyone who likes dogs ... will like Bandit." -Chicago Sun-Times "One cannot help coming away from this book with an utterly transformed understanding of dogs." -The Wall Street Journal