I don’t feel sorry for him.
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 24th, 2007 filed in celebrityMichael Vick will soon enter his guilty plea to charges related to dog fighting. Yesterday, I listened to a newscast discussing how this will likely end his football career. It surprised me that people were actually being interviewed who felt sorry for him. Considering that 53 dogs were confiscated from his possession I find it just a little hard to believe that this wasn’t a hard core “hobby” for him. I had to laugh when it was reported this morning that he claims he neither bet on dog fights nor harmed any animals. I don’t feel a bit sorry for him if this does end his career. When there are so many legal and honest ways to gamble there just isn’t an excuse for this type of behavior in my book. Had Vick had 53 poker tables on his property the world wouldn’t be batting an eye. Maybe making a public example out of a celebrity like Vick will send a strong message to every small time dog fighter in the world. I doubt it but it would be nice to think about.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I simply feel bad that he chose to make the decisions he did. It is so sad to see someone with so much potential make poor decisions. He will lose so many opportunities and give up so much, but it is his own fault.
August 27th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I’ve been ignoring this “news” story because it’s just too depressing. If he didn’t have all those dogs for fighting, what were they for??
August 28th, 2007 at 7:47 am
i agree with you, there is no forgiveness on such a crime
August 28th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I have been blogging for days, and you are the first person to state the obvious about this case – making an example of him will definately send a message!
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.
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 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