Another Opinion

Down Goes Michael Vick

It was inevitable. Dog fighting is not tolerated in a country that spends billions, yes, billions of dollars on their pets. (See, the Queen of Mean Leona Helmsley leaving ten million dollars to a dog in her will).

What does this say about our society? We tolerate horses being whipped to the finish line with cold hard steel in their mouths and a jockey kicking and screaming on their backs; and we call it the sport of kings.

We tolerate rodeos where every animal is kicked or strangled or slapped or punched and we televise it as humane.

We have whole television channels devoted to hunting and fishing. There are grown men hiding in the ground to blast geese out of the sky as they lure them with decoys and fake calls. There are grown men hiding in trees with deer urine lathering their bodies as they wait to shoot a big buck at two hundred yards. And we give Michael Vick grief because he fought dogs? Oh, or because he executed dogs with no lust for fighting?

Turn on your televisions again ye hypocrites. Watch those crashes in NASCAR. Watch those classic knockouts in boxing. See a guy get beaned on purpose in baseball. Laugh as a player gets knocked silly in football. Enjoy the hockey players dropping their gloves to make a statement. See a slap-fest on every possession in basketball.

Then tune in and enjoy all of those fishing shows. Yeah, sure, catch and release. How about I hook you in the mouth and drag you underwater and stay there talking while you gasp for oxygen? Please don’t kid me about what is humane in our society.

I own two Pit Bulls. I don’t actively fight them, but I have seen them defend themselves and they know what they are doing. They have also defended my family and I appreciate that. I have no desire to roll them for money or to prove anything. But I do know that pound for pound that they are the best at what they do. I own them because they fear no dog.

As a much younger man I used to fight in the ring. Training required dark early morning runs in unsavory neighborhoods where I lived at the time. After being attacked by a Great Dane, I bought a Pit Bull, and will never own a different breed.

So yes, I have made an active choice to fight man on man in the ring. I have won and lost. We shook hands afterward and many times shared pitchers of beer. My eldest son plays hockey and I have seen him fight on the ice. My younger son plays football and practices MMA and I have seen him take a beating as well as administer one. My wife yells at me from spitting distance almost daily. The point is that we are a violent society. Nature is inherently violent.

To crucify Michael Vick might just be considered a hate crime. Don’t think for a moment that this might not be racially motivated. Whoopi Goldberg, Emmitt Smith, and Stephon Marbury have stood up for Vick. I guarantee you that if Brett Favre had been fighting dogs as a good old boy in the South, things would be different. I also guarantee that more white folk fight dogs than black folk do.

I don’t care that people fight dogs. If a dog has no try in him, he’ll lie down right away and the fight is over in my opinion. Yes, dog fighting is a felony in all but two states in the Union, Wyoming and Idaho, go figure. The fact remains that we are humans born of bloodlust. We crave competition, often to the death, even if we don’t admit it. I just think that it’s wrong that the hypocritical American public is crucifying Michael Vick.