Michael Vick...Grrrr!

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

Even though I'm a Brit, I'm a big fan of what you Americans mistakenly call Football. I hear today that Michael Vick has been reinstated by the NFL. I'm just hoping that no team picks up that bastard, what he did is unforgivable, and the punishment, as usual for animal abuse, wasn't nearly enough!....Those poor Pit Bulls!...I say again...UNFORGIVABLE!

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

Actually Karen, I started this off because I was pissed. I commend you for trying to get us off the limited point and embrace the problem as a nationwide problem, and as you say it could be happening now just 10 miles away. I think it's hard for us dog lovers to explore the reasons behind this sort of cruelty, as it's obviously not in our nature, or we wouldn't be on this site in the first place. It couldn't be the money, the guy was stinking rich...so he's just a sick bastard! What other reason could there be?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I am not trying to make excuses for Michael Vick's behavior. I am trying to say that the issue of dog-fighting does not begin and end with Michael Vick, and will not stop whether Michael Vick plays football or not. It begins and ends with changing the attitudes towards dog ownership in this country, with education, and yes, with role models. When someone doesn't know that something is wrong, personal responsibility doesn't mean much. That's the same excuse that is given to defend people who buy dogs thoughtlessly and give them up just as thoughtlessly. It's all part of the same thing. None of us knows whether Michael Vick has learned anything or not. We don't even know if anyone will offer him a contract. If the point of this blog is to commiserate about how terrible the actions of Vick & his cronies were, I agree with the rest of you. They were terrible. That kind of cruelty is going on within a 10 mile radius of you right now, wherever you live. I was trying to explore the reasons behind this cruelty, and maybe discuss some of the issues and attitudes involved. Sorry I misunderstood the point.
And now, I'm done.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I feel that while people do deserve a second chance after serving their time, the second chance doesn't have to involve the huge amounts of money that football players get. He deserves a second chance to live a law abiding life. Let him figure out a new career - one that does not have youth thinking he is cool when he is scum.

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

I'm with you Chris!

[Chris & Boys]

I am sure I am going to catch hell for this. But here it goes. I agree Vick should be given a second chance once he has EARNED it. Many women give the men of them a second, third and maybe fourth chance after they have been beaten. All too often they end up dead because of it. I don't know if Vick is sorry for what he did, or that he got caught. If it is the latter, I would much rather see him handing me my Frosty through my car window, than on TV acting like his is something special. You can make as many excuses for his behavior as you want, but not all people raised in poverty, thrust into multimillion dollar contracts make the same type of decision that he has. It is called personal responsibility.

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

But it IS football, yours isn't, it's more like rugby, but with body armor. National Health care is good if you want to wait months for a procedure...with you on the gun control thing....but you'd hate England just for the cost of living. Wages are relatively the same, gas for instance (called petrol) is about $8 a gallon. Houses are in the same league as California prices in the north of England, and twice that in the south. Cost you about $300 for the yearly tags on your vehicle, vehicles are about 50% more to buy. That's why I live here, even though I live in the wettest part of mainland USA, still not as miserable as in England, and there is no guarantee of good weather in the summer....need I go on?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It sounds like England has a much better way of recruiting for professional sports teams than we do. Plus national health care and gun control! If only your "football" really was FOOTBALL, I would have to move, lol!

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

You're right, of course everyone should be given a second chance, but they should be stepping up to prove they have changed before they are given the chance to just resume their old life as if nothing happened. Jail time is just jail time, there is no rehabilitation there. The bigger football clubs in England (you know, the sport you call soccer), pick up kids from school (England doesn't have sports scholarships as the US does), so they put them in young player squads, and they take the responsibility to continue the kids education at the same time, and they are not paid millions, they get a better wage than they would working at their local convenience store, but they have to work hard both in their training and their education to even be considered for the club's premier squad. Not that there isn't bad behavior by a small minority, there always will be in any scenario, but the mentoring is there by the guys in the premier squads and I'm sure it helps. We need to educate our young more to respect animals and show them that not only can we be beneficial to their existence, subsequently we benefit from being around them.....and I'm done!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Rant away! I think we all feel like ranting when we hear about this kind of abuse.
Maybe the NFl should have had a mentor for this young man, instead of throwing the money at him and leaving him to his own devices. Maybe these multimillionaire "role models" should be doing public service ads for the Humane Society, demonstrating kindness & affection to dogs in front of the young fans who idolize them. Let the next generation grow up with a different image of the way a rich & powerful "hero" treats animals.
Michael Vick should definitely be held accountable for the crimes he has committed. But we do strive for rehabilitation in this country, and allowing people a chance to redeem themselves. There are few among us who have not needed, at some time in our lives, to ask for a second chance.

[Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy]

Yes it is a hard mindset to change, but athletes are role models to the young, and to bring him back into the NFL is almost saying "Hey, it's OK, you've done your time, come back in!" But that's not the point, just because the justice system doesn't punish anywhere near harshly enough, the NFL should take the high ground and say "No way Jose! We don't want our young looking at you as if you're something special!"....It's like when Tyson got banned from boxing, and then was let back in later....money talks!

Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer) grew up dirt poor on a farm in Mexico, and I'm sure cock fighting and the like was the norm over there, but look what he's done for the Pit Bull breed in recent years, his dogs Daddy and Junior are role models for other dogs with bad behavior.

We are a nation of animal lovers, especially dogs, and so is my home country of England, cruelty is in the minority, but it's still there. There are too many people who have animals and just don't look after them, look how many cases of hoarders there are. We've had one woman in our area who had hundreds of starving bunnies, she was banned from owning them any more, then she gets caught now living in a motel room surrounded with more bunnies. There should be tighter control on animal ownership....I'll stop now, beginning to rant!