Rant mode on:
So, Michael Vick was released from prison today. You know, that football player who ran the dog fighting ring. And he wants to rejoin the NFL.
Ordinarily I wouldn't give a crap about the NFL, or who wants to do what in it. However Vick happens to fall in my area of interest because of the prevention of animal cruelty, which is a cause I work for as much as I can. What Vick did to those dogs was astoundingly cruel, and if you aren't familiar with the case I recommend you take a quick look on the internet to see what I'm talking about here.
It's a long-standing belief that a person who abuses an animal will abuse a person. There is a progression there, you will find it again and again in abusive people that they started with animals. What Vick did to those animals, not just fighting them to death, but how they were treated in general, speaks to a very disturbed man. A man who needs more help than just being locked in prison.
I would also not expose him to a violent sport, such as football. It will feed into his problems and could cause him to backslide. And next time it might not be animals he will be abusing.
Also, should we really reward this guy with millions of dollars? Really? He's violent, and from what I've seen he really doesn't seem to give a crap about what happened, he's more upset that he got caught. Let's not let him back into the NFL, maybe we could have him work for the ASPCA for a while, helping rescue animals or something. You know, something actually rewarding and doing good, not running around grabbing guys asses after he beats the shit out of them.
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Has he not served his time and fulfilled his debt to society? I could understand preventing a doctor who abused his patients from returning to practice medicine. However football has no relationship to animal abuse. Preventing him from returning to his profession has no bearing on his crime. It would be like a construction worker who is convicted of drug posession serving his time and being told he can no longer work construction.
ReplyDeleteWhat was done to those dogs is horrid in the extreme, however a sentence was given and served. Denying the man his career is outside the province of the law. Of course football fans can and should refuse to support him if that is how they feel. However he has served his time if a team will hire him he should be allowed to work.
But being a construction worker doesn't really have a bearing on drugs. Football is a violent sport, and since this man has a problem with acting violently, would it be a good idea to place him back there?
ReplyDeleteOf course he'll get hired somewhere, no one would tell him no. However I think that playing a violent sport does have a bearing on him and his crime. I would also say the same thing if he had been a hockey player or a boxer, two other violent sports. If you have a problem with this sort of thing, perhaps you should find another profession.
i don't know if he will get hired. there's the way bad press, the fact that nobody will ever talk about anything else in relation to the team, and he's been out of the league for 2 years.
ReplyDeletei hope that negative press alone keeps him from being hired. i think that hiring vick sends a message, even if it is unintended, that what he did was okay.
plus, i suppose one could say that he paid his debt to society, but 2 years for the things he did? it's not enough. i don't know that anything could be enough, but 2 years seems like not enough. the punishment for animal cruelty needs to be much greater than it currently is, if for no other reason than the one leigh pointed out: cruelty to animals is a strong predictor of cruelty to humans.
I agree that 2 years may be not enough but that is for legislation to decide before the fact not after. Also removing him from his profession legally without better justification would violate his right to due process.
ReplyDeleteIt can be argued that football is not violent in the same way that animal abuse is. Football is physical and competitive but there is no intention to injure. Even boxing and other combat sports that have a goal towards violence operate from a fundamental respect between the competitors.
Violence towards animals or children or spouses or any form of violence that is not consensual or necessary for defense, has no respect for others. That is the big difference between boxing and assault.
I don't think sports fed his violence. I think he was a violent scumbag and a football player, not a violent scumbag because he was a football player.
Anyway I also hope that press and fan pressure will end his career. I just hope the government doesn't overstep the law by trying to force him out.
He's a scumbag alright, this is very topical for me today, I wrote up a blog post about pitbulls and I posted it on both my blogs.
ReplyDeleteI think people who are involved in dog fighting should be fed to them!
His crime isn't against just his dogs but ALL DOGS, Pit Bulls have a terrible stigma attached to them because of people like that. They are wonderful dogs so when someone else mentioned on their blog that they should ALL be killed... I went off and I mean OFF!
How does a dog defend itself against cruelty like that? They have no chance and are usually killed because of it. How many dogs lost their lives because of this man? To me that is homicide, plain and fucking simple!
LOL I just saw the "rant mode on" and boy do I agree with that statement. Sorry, I just wanted to comment on that :)
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