Breaking News: Vick will not admit to killing dogs or gambling

Simply put, tens of millions of Americans don't keep a deer as a pet. Bears aren't man's best friend. Old Yeller, Rin Tin Tin and Lassie weren't ducks.

 

I think this is my SportsJournalists.com moment of zen for the week.

 

Is that good or bad?

 

You need to add reading comprehension to your to-do list there, big guy. Nobody said, "we need" to understand the culture. I contributed a link to a well-researched story that provides a lot of background about dog fighting. I know, crazy doing something like that on a sports journalism message board.

 

Information, cran?
What in the hell is wrong with you, son?
Understanding stuff means you approve of it, which is why it can be proved by certain people that I approve of Nazism because I once read Mein Kampf for class.

 

I've mentioned it in other threads about dogfighting, but Sam Sheridan's book "A Fighter's Heart" has a chapter on dogfighting. It's good reading, though some of the descriptions are stomach-churning.

 

Oh, there's a big surprise. You goddam Hitler apologists are all alike.

 

How about this: Because when you go hunting, you shoot and you kill. Usually, it's just that quick. It's over, no suffering. It provides a meal (and yeah, even hunting for sport provides meals, since nine times out of 10, the animal is harvested by someone and the meat donated) and it provides a public service -- thinning the animal population. (I realize that sounds like a convenient excuse, but it's legit. Just ask the people living in towns where the deer have been breaking into shops at night looking for food.)

What dogfighting might be best compared to is poaching. Often, poachers who are killing tigers or elephants for various pieces, will not kill an animal. Instead of "wasting" an extra bullet, they just take what they need from the disabled animal and leave it suffering. Also, rarely does the meat from a poached animal get harvested.

Dogfighting, though, is really on its own island with cock fighting and hog-dog fighting (exactly what it sounds like, pairing a dog up against a wild boar). The animals fight, sometimes to the death, always until one dog is too injured to continue. The dogs rarely receive vet care and wounds are often either left gaping or crudely patched with whatever happens to be lying around. The animals live a pathetic existence. Often, they spend their days tied with heavy chains to buried car axles or other metal stakes, just out of reach of another dog. They receive very little human contact, and are often violently abused by their owners.

So, please, let's stop the comparisons to hunting. I'm no hunter and could give a shit if the sport was outlawed tomorrow. But I can recognize the obvious differences.

 

Actually, this does get down to the heart of the matter. The collective inhabitants of this country have shown a tremendous passion for dogs, perhaps beyond what was already generally understood as a given.

And Michael Vick is paying the price for the actions that greatly, greatly offended that collective passion.

 

I'm tired of hearing about it. I'm tired of reading about it.

Just throw Ookie in the Pokie already!

 

That's part -- but not all -- of it.

I'm not a big hunter, either, but hunting generally doesn't involve torture.

What you're talking about with Vick is the breeding of animals expressly to torture them. When a dog underperformed, they killed them in some pretty fucking gruesome ways. That, put simply, turns the stomach of even my friends who have hunted every year of their lives.

It's fucking sadistic; it's sick, even beyond the sickness of dogfighting on its own. I have no doubt there are dogfighters who think it's disgusting.

 

I detest hunting for sport. Hunting for food is a different story. Hunting just so you can put a dead animal's head on your wall is just fucking retarded!

Hey, Bobby, look what I dun kilt!

Vick falls into the category of "People I hope I never see alone in a dark alley"