It was just announced that Michael Vick is expected in court again August 27th, where he will “accept full responsibility” by and plead guilty to charges of dog fighting.
It doesn’t change the fate of the dogs that lost their lives, or were tortured or beaten. But it does give us peace of mind that he will serve time for committing these crimes and thankfully no more animals will be subject to his sick and cruel actions.
A very strong message indeed.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 6:30 pm
animalchaplain
If there is anything good about the Michael Vick story, it is that there is an emerging increased awareness about animal cruelty and animal fighting. There is so much anger about this issue. If we channel it into a positive direction, hopefully, something good can come of it. However…
I watched Vick’s public apology with my little son who USED TO wear Michael Vick jerseys to school. It is disturbing to think a certain percentage of the population is honestly going to be swayed by Michael Vick’s “enlightenment” carefully crafted by his overpaid attorneys. Call me a cynic, but I don’t believe a man who has been allegedly torturing animals since childhood coincidentally has a religious epiphany as a result of getting caught and losing his job. I hope I am wrong.
I think it is a sad commentary that we, as a culture, are using the Vick story to compare “What’s worse?” “What’s worse”, we ask, “carelessly fathering illegitimate children, or dogfighting?”. “Dogfighting or gambling?” “Dogfighting or rape?” “Dogfighting or racism?” “Dogfighting or hateful nationalism?” “Dogfighting or (fill in the blank)….?” The comparisons to dogfighting have been endless.
Dogfighting is one more piece of evidence our country is in need of a spiritual transformation (please note I said spiritual and not necessarily religious). Animals are sentient beings – they feel pain, and they suffer, just like we do. They are not more important, or less important than human beings, but like human beings, they are important, too.
Dogfighting pits one dog against another until one of them dies. The survivor gets his flesh torn off, ears ripped off, eyes pulled out, etc., and the reward for being “a winner” is to writhe in pain until the next fight. Enough said. The pictures make my flesh crawl. The losers are tortured, beaten, starved, electrocuted or drowned. For what? Because these poor creatures were unlucky enough to be born a dog!
Every major faith teaches its followers to be responsible stewards of animals and the Earth. Please help us get the word out that caring for animals, just like caring for people, is an important part of just being a decent person and citizen. If we make this a priority, there will be no more dogfighting horror stories, and no more pointless comparisons of evils. Let us all rise, together, to be better people than we are today, shall we?
Chaplain Nancy Cronk
Founder, http://www.AnimalChaplains.com
Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:18 am
Kristin Wertz
Thank you for such heart felt words about our wonderful four legged friends and companions. I’d take any dog over Michael Vick as a friend or companion. To finally get caught and then have this moment when he repents is bull sh–. He cannot and probably will not make the real change about caring about dogs that he needs to. One must feel love before they can share it and I suspect he doesn’t really get it. It’s whatever money buys for him. How pathetic and sad that he was actually a role model for our youth. He truly is a loser in every sense of the word. This type of violence transfers over to humans very quickly and it’s often where it starts, use the pet aganist your girl friend or wife & children to control them. He really needs some anger management help more than any time around dogs again. I hope he is supervised VERY closely. Kris in Minnesota