The Richmond Animal League is one of eight organizations that will receive 47 of the pit bulls seized on Michael Vick's property this year.

The Chesterfield County group will get four of the dogs while Animal Rescue of Tidewater, in Chesapeake, will get one. The other groups receiving dogs are out of state.

The groups will receive $5,000 for each dog considered adoptable, and $20,000 for each dog considered so aggressive that it will have to spend significant time, if not its entire life, in a special facility, according to a report by the guardian of the dogs appointed by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. The five dogs that will remain in Virginia are considered adoptable.

Hudson will sentence Vick, a former NFL quarterback, on Monday for his role in the operation of "Bad Newz Kennels," a dogfighting ring based on property he owned in Surry County. Two co-defendants were sentenced last week to 18 and 21 months in prison, respectively.

Susan Kelly, director of development for the animal league, said, "The hope is definitely that they will all be able to be adopted." The dogs will be transferred directly to foster homes and will not be housed at the group's shelter, she said.

In foster care the aim is to get the dogs used to home environments where the humans have the experience and special skills needed to care for and handle them. They would not be permanently adopted until deemed ready, she said.

Some dogs, however, may never be ready; they would go to a "sanctuary," which is not as desirable as a home but is better than a kennel, she said.

Kelly said that many details about future adoptions have yet to be worked out and that she was not at liberty to discuss much about the dogs.

She said that the Richmond Animal League, located just off Midlothian Turnpike, across from Chesterfield Towne Center, was founded in 1979 and is the area's oldest nonprofit "no-kill" organization. They currently house 60 to 75 dogs and cats.

Initially 53 pit bull dogs were seized on Vick's Surry County property. Six have since died or been euthanized.

The surviving dogs were evaluated by Rebecca J. Huss, a Valparaiso University School of Law professor appointed guardian/special master of the dogs by the court. Huss made the recommendations about the dogs' future this week. Hudson endorsed her recommendations in an order yesterday.

Huss determined that 22 of the dogs might be adoptable and 25 were so aggressive toward people or other animals that they would require special, long-term care.

"While in the foster home, each dog must continue to exhibit behavior indicating it would be safe to the public prior to being adopted," Huss said in a prepared statement. "For the dogs that may need to remain in a sanctuary environment . . . I believe that these dogs may not just survive, but thrive in that environment."

The six other groups taking the dogs are: