What Michael Vick Did (Hanging, Drowning, Electrocuting...)

By: Lowell
Published On: 7/19/2007 8:15:21 AM

According to the Humane Society, here's what Michael Vick did, why he deserves to be suspended by the NFL, and why he should go to jail for a long time:

Late yesterday, a federal grand jury indicted NFL star quarterback Michael Vick and three cohorts on felony dogfighting charges...

The abuses described in the 19-page indictment are almost beyond belief:

In or about March of 2003, PEACE [one of Vick?s co-defendants], after consulting with VICK about the losing female pit bull's condition, executed the losing dog by wetting the dog down with water and electrocuting the animal.

In or about April 2007, PEACE, PHILLIPS, and VICK executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in "testing" sessions...by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."



Utterly disgusting.  As if that's not bad enough, USA Today describes this despicable "sport" (aka, animal cruelty and torture) as follows:

South Carolina's attorney general Henry McMaster paints an equally gruesome picture.

He tells of dogs being poked with electric prods to make them go harder during training, or being tied to the back of a pickup for long, grueling runs. He said he believes family pets have been stolen to serve as "bait dogs" ? helpless animals that help ensure a pit bull has the proper bloodlust for an actual fight.

"They will tape the mouth shut so the bait dog can't hurt their prized pit bull," McMaster said. "Then they'll put them in the pit and let them be chewed to pieces. They want their dogs to learn how to kill."

By the way, according to the Humane Society, this "sport" is "largely a recreational activity for gang members," where "the pots run into the six figures."  Great stuff, huh?

Well, that's what Michael Vick has been heavily involved with, and that's why he needs to go to jail for a long time.  According to this report, an "18-page indictment alleges that Vick and three other men ran the [dog fighting] operation from early 2001 to April 2007 at a Smithfield, Va., property owned by Vick."  Vick "faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and full restitution if convicted on the first count. On the second, each faces a year in prison, a $100,000 fine, or both."

Dogfighting is one of the most heinous, sadistic, disgusting things anyone can engage in.  No excuses: the judge should throw the book at Michael Vick - spare me any nonsense about how he's a famous football player (who cares!) and thus deserves special treatment.  Just as importantly, this illegal "sport" should go the way of barbarisms that we might have thought had gone the way of the gladiatoral games.  Or are we back to "bread and circuses" once again in the year 2007?  Let's hope not.


Comments



Withholding final judgment until the trial (Catzmaw - 7/19/2007 8:37:48 AM)
but this does not look good. The actions described are sick and depraved.  Vick's always been a jerk, but this is a new low.  I would think that even ardent football fans who've been willing to overlook his other well-documented thuggish behavior will draw the line at this one.


Sure, he's innocent until proven guilty. (Lowell - 7/19/2007 8:40:45 AM)
But the evidence is overwhelming; apparently, Vick's name is mentioned everywhere you go in dog-fighting world.  And you're right, this is "sick and depraved" shit.


What gets me is that he does this for fun (Catzmaw - 7/19/2007 8:49:48 AM)
It's not like he's some backwoods yahoo who needs the gambling money.  He is and always has been scum, and he's been offered numerous chances to wise up and join the human race.  He seems psychopathic to me, just a guy who enjoys power and inflicting pain.  For his own safety, if I were the NFL I wouldn't allow him back on a football field.  Something tells me there are a few 350 pound linebackers out there who would dearly love to plant him if they get the chance, and surely some of his own teammates might find a way to miss a block ("gee, coach, so sorry.  Don't know where my head was").  No way he'd make it through the season without serious injury.


It's horrible enough that he did this to animals. (Lowell - 7/19/2007 8:51:29 AM)
But people who abuse animals are far more likely to torture and kill other people as well.  Assuming he did what he's accused of doing, Vick is a menace to society.


I Agree . . . (mmc0412 - 7/19/2007 9:45:43 AM)
. . . with Lowell.  Anyone who is cruel to animals leans toward cruelty to humans as well.  If I had my way, anyone convicted of animal cruelty should suffer the same fate as the animals they tortured.  This is just so disgusting.  And yes please, someone tell the media to stop showing the dog fights.


The media doesn't give a crap. (Lowell - 7/19/2007 9:52:33 AM)
It's all about "if it bleeds it leads" and, of course, ratings.  The bottom line is that no matter how "irresponsible" the blogs can sometimes be, the mainstream media is far, FAR worse on a daily basis.  Remember during the Virginia Tech shootings how the media played the killer's video over and over again, while here at RK, we refused to even show the asshole's picture?  So who is responsible and who is irresponsible again?


Disgusting (TheGreenMiles - 7/19/2007 9:00:19 AM)
Obviously this stuff has nothing to do with where he went to college, but when this news broke the first thing I thought was, "Wow ... another punch in the gut for Virginia Tech."  Their alumni worship this guy.

On a semi-related note ... can someone please ask CNN to stop showing graphic video of dog fights?



Why on earth do we worship athletes and (Lowell - 7/19/2007 9:01:39 AM)
celebrities?  As far as I'm concerned, it's a sign of severe problems with our culture, and a big part of the reason why the murderer OJ Simpson is a free man today.


Makes me lust for vengeance not just justice (mg - 7/19/2007 9:10:22 AM)
If there was a God, one of those poor pups would have jumped out and chewed his nuts off.


Yeah, this makes me really REALLY angry (Lowell - 7/19/2007 9:13:52 AM)
Abusing an animal is the lowest of the low.


what happened Michael????????? (lgb30856 - 7/19/2007 9:38:49 AM)
You were given every chance in the world. A talent to play football and every chance in the world to do what is right.
What happened to you and Marcus?
You had a high school coach who mentored you and Marcus and you go and do this?
And you do this to dogs?
Where is your mother on this?
Shame on you.


athletes as idols (martha - 7/19/2007 10:15:05 AM)
My son-in-law is great friends with Brandon Inge the Detroit Tiger's third baseman. They have been friends since elementary school and Brandon was a groomsman in my daughter and son-in-law's wedding.

Not to reveal anything but some of the things I hear talked about in reference to the Tigers in particular and athletes AND their wives in general..... nobody should be looking up to some of these yahoos.

That said there are SO many people involved in sports who give back to their communities and schools that they should be recognized when they do.

I taught Anthony Poindexter ( UVA '99/ All American/Super Bowl/Coach at UVA) If you want to look up to and admire a sports figure from Virginia...admire and respect him. He's beyond a class act!



There's good and bad in every profession. (Lowell - 7/19/2007 10:17:33 AM)
But I see no reason why we should idolize athletes any more than we idolize brain surgeons, rocket scientists, social workers, or teachers.


problem is........ (martha - 7/19/2007 10:20:46 AM)
They aren't in the news all the time. Kids don't wear T-shirts w/ scientists' names and numbers on the back and when intellectuals "hit a Home Run" it's not splattered on Sports Center.


As far as I'm concerned, my sister... (Lowell - 7/19/2007 10:25:40 AM)
...who has spent a good chunk of her adult life as a hospice social worker, who has raised to good kids, and who RESCUES animals as opposed to ABUSING animals, is the real hero.  I don't care if she plays sports or not, it's what she does in every other way that matters to me.


Brandon Inge (martha - 7/19/2007 10:16:22 AM)
He's a great guy...not to imply that he isn't at all. His wife is a super Democrat!


Sad but true (TheGreenMiles - 7/19/2007 10:46:56 AM)
C'mon, his career on-base percentage is .306, he sucks!  :)

I'm kidding, of course, but unfortunately it's sad that if a player performs at a superstar level, we'll overlook a lot of stuff.



check his fielding % (martha - 7/20/2007 7:30:35 PM)
PLUS he is a team player, donates to children's hospitals AND his wife worked to get Laura Granholm elected the first time.

Lowell, my sister counsels recovering drug addicts, works w/ abuse victims and is battling breast cancer. She's MY hero! Plus she played volleyball in high school!
;-)



Fairness (dancronin - 7/19/2007 10:34:40 AM)
There is a lot of talk on this blog about fairness, so let's be fair to Michael Vick.  He is innocent until proven guilty.  He was indicted, not convicted.  Let's just let the case play out in court before we make any snap judgements about Vick's guilt or innocence. 


Sure, innocent until proven guilty (Lowell - 7/19/2007 1:08:32 PM)
but 19-page indictments don't come out of nowhere.  Lots and lots of smoke here, we'll see if there's no fire.


sounds bad - but I'm not convinced that dogfighting should be illegal... (econlibVA - 7/19/2007 11:16:08 AM)
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I think Michael Vick should benefit from the same presumption.  But even if he is guilty, I don't think he should face a long prison term. Vick is facing six years in prison, and I don't think anyone should spend six years in prison for animal abuse - no matter what he did to those dogs.

If rich, White people loved dogfighting (instead of Blacks, mostly), would dogfighting even be illegal?  It's the same with cockfighting - if rich, White people liked cockfighting (and not Hispanic immigrants), would cockfighting be illegal?  I just got back from Spain where bullfighting is popular.  It's not as popular as it once was, but people go to bullfights and it's considered an important part of the culture.  What's the difference?  I don't see any.

And what about our treatment of other animals?  Animals on factory farms are treated worse than those involved in dogfighting (if you have any doubts about this - just go over to PETA's website).  But we eat those animals and are happy with the low prices that the factory farms provide (even if we complain, rightly, about the pollution and problems with the safety of our food supply).  But, factory farms are legal, and cockfighting and dogfighting can result in long prison terms.  Where's the justice in that?

In truth, I'm uncomfortable with animal abuse, whether in factory farms, bullfighting, dogfighting, or cockfighting.  I just think we need to be consistent in our treatment of animals and not selectively enforce animal treatment standards on minority groups and selected animals that some of us like to keep as pets.  We already have too many Blacks and Hispanics in prison - why add more because of something like dogfighting that's not a danger to society?



If the allegations are true... (KathyinBlacksburg - 7/19/2007 11:50:59 AM)
If the allegations are true, then Vick is depraved.  However, I think we should await the trial before saying he did anything.  There are cases, right here in Virginia, where prosecutors have gotten carried away.  I am afraid "people say" or it's "known everywhere in dogfighting circles," is merely hearsay.

Despite my town of (long) residence,  this is no defense of Michael Vick.  But the Constitution is still supposed to mean something.  Are we now to just accuse and throw away the key?  What about those wrongfully accused, even railroaded.  There was one such case I wrote about just two days ago. A man was nearly executed (and may well still be), but 7/9 witnesses said he didn't do it (but they were coerced into signing affadavits).  Most were very young at the time.  And one of the 2 witnesses who won't recant is the one who most say actually did the deed. 

Finally, we spend way too much time on celebrities, however allegedly heinous, the charges are.  I am so sick of Paris Hilton, and the whole sorry lot of underachievers the media celebrates, being thrust before us night after night.  Hold the trial. 

So, forget the live blogs (of his trial).  If guilty, Vick doesn't deserve the attention.  18,000 died in the US this year because of no health care. Now Bush wants to thwart the CHIPS program, which insures kids, as duly reported on this same page.  More than three thousand US soldiers have died in Iraq.  Around 600,00 civilians have died in Iraq.  2 million are homeless and/or refugees in Iraq.  The GOP, not the Dems, have obstructed the vote on funding the Defense Dept.  (How many media outlets got that right?)  The Justice Dept has been hijacked to thwart legal voters from voting. The real story in Justice is the caging (and deleting from the voting rolls, lawful voters and upending the fundamental right to vote.  Nearly every agency of the federal government was turned into an arm of the Committee to Reelect (just as in the Watergate era).  But this is so much worse than Watergate (as John Dean titles his book).  As hideous as are the charges against Vick, there's a lot of work to do and we should not get sidetracked with the celebrity news of the day.  We have a counter-media to work on, and elections to cover and (hopefully) volunteer on.  Onward!



Death penalty seems fair to me if it's true.... (Dianne - 7/19/2007 12:57:00 PM)
He didn't give the animals a chance....neither would I give him one.


Case is expanding (Silence Dogood - 7/19/2007 3:58:56 PM)
http://content.hampt...

The indictment mentions a "person known to the grand jury" from Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Today I saw this article that a man in VA Beach was arrested for animal cruelty--specifically, for shooting a pitbull with a pistol.

I'm guessing this is the last piece in the puzzle needed by the CA's office to file charges against Vick in Virginia.



Michael Vick (Mary I - 7/19/2007 11:45:36 PM)
The Judge is to be Henry Hudson  He was a Judge in Circuit Court in Fairfax Co.
The lowlife son in-law of a woman who has cleaned for me since 1985 used her social security number, address, and last name to obtain a number of credit cards. He ran a $70,000 tab on those cards.
We learned of this when she really needed a new car and at my suggestion, we went to a dealer with the thought that if need be, I would co-sign her loan. ( I knew her credit to be above the crowd as I co-signed a second trust on a property for her and working 7 days a week, she repaid that 10 loan in 5 years)
It was then that we learned of her credit. The Fairfax County Police would do nothing. I assume $70,000 was a small amount to them.
Then I got to thinking that the USPostal Service had been used for all this.  Lowlife had a key to the mailbox and would remove credit cards, bills etc. before his mother in-law got home.
I found a wonderful young postal inspector at Merrifield who made certain one of the credit card companies pressed charges and off to court we went!
The Judge was Henry Hudson. I can still smile and remember him screaming at lowlife. He did indeed give him some jail time.
I doubt he will be impressed with Vick's status as a number of the sports community.


Hudson's a rather conservative but fairminded judge (Catzmaw - 7/20/2007 9:37:30 PM)
He was once Commonwealth's Attorney for Arlington County, then eventually after a couple of stops along the way moved to the Fairfax Circuit Court and then on to the federal court.  He does not suffer a lot of dilatory BS in his courtroom.  He's very law and order in his orientation, but not an automaton.  He's polite to counsel for both sides, considers motions carefully, and is very hardworking.  He was generally well-regarded on the Fairfax bench.  I would agree that Vick's status as a big time sports stud will not impress him very much. 


War dogs--- and Throw the book (Teddy - 7/20/2007 12:15:40 AM)
at Vick and his cohorts if found guilty. He is scum, a savage clearly born into the wrong era.

It is worth taking note, however, that the use of fighting dogs in war has a long history, going back to ancient Roman times when, for example, one day the Romans fought the Gauls in Northern Italy, defeated the naked Gaulish warriors (and their women, who fought alongside their men) in a few hours in the morning, but the dogs did not give up, fought on, and were not subdued until late in the afternoon. Dogs were used in combat during the Middle Ages, hence the term "loose the dogs of war" in Shakespeare. It wasn't that long ago that we entertained ourselves with bear baiting and bull baiting, and that's why we bred bulldogs.

Why human beings think they have the right to enjoy forcing other creatures to kill each other to entertain us, I cannot understand; but then, less than five generations ago whites forced blacks to fight each other to earn gambling money for their masters. Human beings (or some of them) simply love bloodletting, it's in the DNA--- and probably one reason homo sapiens was the winner in the primate lottery.



Sen. Robert Byrd on the Vick case (Lowell - 7/20/2007 6:23:43 AM)
From today's Washington Post:

Allegations of a vicious dogfighting ring prompted an unusually emotional speech in the Capitol yesterday, as the Senate's longest-serving member fought tears and called for God's judgment on those who promote such activities.

"One is left wondering," he said. "Who are the real animals: the creatures inside or outside the ring?"

"Let that word resound from hill to hill and from mountain to mountain, from valley to valley across this broad land," he thundered, raising his right hand. "May God help those poor souls who would be so cruel. Barbaric! Hear me!"

[...]

"I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt," he said.

"One is left wondering," he said. "Who are the real animals: the creatures inside or outside the ring?"



Ol' Robert (Teddy - 7/20/2007 9:20:11 PM)
you tell 'em! God love you.


Byrd is like an old time (Catzmaw - 7/20/2007 9:39:28 PM)
evangelical hell-raiser.  He speaks the truth, and eloquently.