Dog Fighting. Michael Vick. Enough Said.

A Guest Commentary
by Kevin Sims

NEW EDINBURG, Ark., July 21 – I’ve been holding off blogging on this subject, not for any personal feelings or research purposes, but because of my work schedule. I came to the conclusion that interns are the immigrant workers of the professional world.

If you are a sports fan, even just a very casual one, you have heard something about the subject of my blog. It’s been in the news for months, but it just picked up a lot of momentum. I’m talking about the Bad Newz Kennels, Michael Vick’s dog fighting business.

For heading up a dog-fighting ring, the federal government indicted Vick. This would be news worthy enough to blog about, but I want to talk about the grisly details that were published about it.

I’m no PETA supporter or any type of animal activist. The closest confidant I have while I’m struggling to become a writer is, and I respect the hell out of him. We don’t see eye to eye on most things, but I respect his opinion. That being said, you don’t have to even like animals to be completely disgusted about the situation.

Dog fighting is bad enough. You train a pit bull to fight other pit bulls, sometimes to the death; by abusing the hell out of it till it’s the meanest son of a bitch that ever walked the earth. Once a fighting dog, it can never be anything else. It’s trained to kill and it will.

Let’s just say dog fighting is legal and ethical for a moment. Let’s call it the animal equivalent of Ultimate Fighting. When a Bad News Kennel dog lost a fight, the people who run the kennel would kill it. Lets say hypothetically that is legal and ethical too.

But it is how they killed them that makes me sick to my stomach.

These sick fucks didn’t euthanize the dogs; they tortured them to death. A quick shot to the head I would even be cool with. No these low lifes strangled the dogs, hung them with a noose, drowned them or shot them to make sure they suffer. When they felt really creative they hosed them down with water, brought out a pair of jumper cables and electrocuted the dogs to death.

I may be a little off base, but I’m pretty sure torturing animals is like the first sign of being a psychopath.

You can argue all you want about how cows and chickens are mistreated when they are slaughtered for food. You can argue that hunting is unethical, and keeping wild animals in pens is wrong. At least they have purpose.

What’s the purpose of building a miniature gallows to watch a dog strangle to death? It serves no purpose and who ever does that deserves to be punished at the fullest extent of the law.

Now I’ve heard every argument someone can make on Vick’s innocence. I don’t care if he wasn’t the one fighting the dogs. I don’t care if he didn’t put the cement slippers on Fido. He owned the house that the animals were kept, where his friends who ran the business lived and the land that these heinous acts were committed. His property has a dog fighting stadium on it.

You cannot tell me he didn’t know what was going on. I don’t live in or own any of the houses my friends and family live in, but I would know what was going on if they had 50 pit bulls penned up. I would know if they got off for torturing cockroaches.

If a man knowingly owns a building that is a whorehouse, he is just as responsible for prostitution as the pimps and whores or the people that run the business.

The only way Michael Vick is innocent is if Bad News kennels is just a breeding business or these heinous acts weren’t committed on his property. Convicted or not, unless they prove what I just said, he is a piece of shit and the NFL should punish him.

I’ve heard this was a race issue. Being black doesn’t make dog fighting or torturing animals acceptable. I don’t care about his upbringing or race; he is still a worthless human being. Seriously, that argument is saying that by being black you a genetically programmed to torture animals. Do you really want that associated with your race?

I’ve heard it argued that it’s a regional thing and it’s acceptable in the South. No; it’s not. I’m as Southern as it gets and if someone asked me if I wanted to go with him to a dog fight I would kick him in the nuts and beat the crap out of him for exploiting man’s best friend.

I’m can’t claim to be an animal rights activist but I’m an avid dog lover. I didn’t know how much I loved dogs till I got Saban, an ugly yellow mutt whose only true talent is meeting me at my car everyday for the past year and a half every time I pull up from either school or work as happy to see me as anything could be. I don’t care how bad my day was, when I pull up and Saban meets me, I can’t help but feel better. It is so wonderful a feeling to know you have something in life that can never disappoint you and will literally pee on itself with excitement to see you.

I know killing and torturing dogs are not as bad as killing and torturing a human. I never claim that it is, but it’s close.

A dog didn’t get the nickname “Man’s Best Friend” just cause it sounded cute. Nothing that exist is as loyal, affectionate and personally absorbed as a dog. No human can be these things to another human as a dog is with its owner. I don’t care if you’re in the greatest relationship ever with the perfect mate, they are not happy to see you every time you open the door. I don’t care if you are the most loving parent in the world, your life will never be as completely centered around your child’s life as a dog is to its owner, if they are treated right.

You maybe a cat person or some other kind of animal person, your relationship with your animal fails in comparison with what a dog has with its owner. Not even close.

To get this kind of affection all you have to do is get a puppy, keep it fed and scratch its ear every now and then. It will worship you. That’s all it takes.

Torturing any kind of animal for the pleasure of torture is wrong. I actually commend PETA for protesting outside of the NFL office hoping to inflict some sort of punishment to Vick. I really hope it’s not just PETA. I hate that organization, but I’d picket with them if I could.

You know it is a horrible situation when an avid deer hunter sides with PETA. That’s just how horrible a person Vick is.