Joey Skaggs opens a Cathouse for Dogs

1976

Skaggs advertised a canine brothel in The Village Voice, offering 'a savage selection of hot bitches' for USD 50, and supplied footage to WABC-TV. The station ran it, and the material was folded into a documentary, It's A Dog's Life, which went on to win an Emmy. Animal-welfare groups protested, the ASPCA and the New York Attorney General investigated, and Skaggs was subpoenaed. The station never broadcast a correction after he revealed the whole thing was staged. An Emmy-winning documentary incorporated the fabricated footage and the broadcaster issued no retraction, which is the point Skaggs was making about how news verifies itself.