This dog won't hunt
A Gallop poll finds little sympathy among pro football fans for Michael Vick.
Many favor a lifetime ban for the disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback for his role in a dogfighting ring. A majority also favor a "long" prison sentence.
I understand their outrage. Vick not only abused dogs for profit and for entertainment, directly and indirectly. But he has admitted to executing dogs who failed to perform well enough in the ring by hanging and electrocution.
That said, I sense a gross inconsistency in the outrage directed at Vick versus other sports and entertainment figures who have skirted the law in potentially even more tragic ways.
It's particularly disconcerting how someone like St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa was arrested in Florida for drunk driving during spring training and nary was heard a disparaging word.
In March, La Russa was arrested after police said they found him asleep inside his running SUV at a traffic light.
La Russa had a blood alcohol content of 0.093 percent. The legal driving limit n Florida is 0.08 percent.
La Russa was booked on a misdemeanor count and was released after posting $500 cash bond.
When La Russa walked onto the field before the Cardinals' next spring training game, many fans gave him a standing ovation.
A month later, a Cardinal player died from in a car crash while driving drunk.
Josh Hancock, a relief pitcher, died when his SUV crashed into the back of a tow truck.
Don't get me started on the Lindsay Lohans and Nicole Richies of the world, whose abuse of drugs and alcohol while driving has roused curiosity and even sympathy, but little outrage for the danger they posed behind the wheel.
We know what could have happened in those instances. It did in the case of Tolly Carr.
As for animal cruelty as an issue, I'm not sure those of us in Guilford County ought to be throwing too many stones. Just visit the local animal shelter to see the dogs and cats we blissfully abandon and mistreat in droves day after day.
I won't go into the moral questions surrounding hunting for sport.
The bottom line: Vick's actions were clearly wrong and inhumane. But the righteous outrage from the rest of us rings a little hollow.
Comments (12)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
In the wolrd of entertainment/ sports, the mantra you live and die by is: image is everything. It's no joke, dogs are man's best friend and, other than moms, the only beings on the planet truly capable of unconditional love.
What he did is probably going to remain in the realm of the unacceptable.
Can you see Michael Vick going into someplace Philly (where they throw snowballs at Santa Claus) to play the Eagles, and get sacked. The whole stadium will start barking. It's going to distract his whole team. It will be a fiasco.
The only way he can be redeemed is: two yrs. prison. One year representing some type of animal advocacy group full time. And probably a donation of millions. This puts him back in the league in 2011. He can do it. But will he?
Posted on August 30, 2007 9:20 AM
For comments regarding your throw away line about hunting I suggest you look into your own LTEs today. Sorry THAT dog dont hunt either.
And unless you own no leather and are a militant vegan I dont want to hear it. Scratch that... I dont want to hear it in any case.
Are our priorities screwed up... yup. But Lohan, Hilton, Spears and Ritchie are more "rubbernecking" than worship.
Posted on August 30, 2007 12:00 PM
Allen, I agree entirely with everything you say (except for your subtle city-slicker jab at hunting). If I'm a dog and I have a choice between a short life with a fight at the end and getting put to sleep tomorrow, give me the fight. Similarly, I'd rather be a fighting gamecock than a Tyson chicken (although I'd rather be a Tyson chicken than a USC Gamecock). Vick is a scapegoat for society's ambivalence and guilt over its treatment of animals.
Posted on August 30, 2007 12:03 PM
I was referring to hunting purely for sport, which I do have some moral questions about.
Posted on August 30, 2007 12:14 PM
Ry rurst rincrination ris Ruck Richeal Rick, rut rince re rar ran's rest riend, re rive rim rother rance rafter rail.
Posted on August 30, 2007 2:44 PM
Allen,
I understood exactly what you meant by your hunting comment. My letter to the editor, published today, was about exactly that. Of course, many did not understand and the vitriolic comments ensued. I'm no tree-hugger either; I'll fight to the death their right to have a gun. But using it to kill animals for fun? No way. Hang in there! ~A
Posted on August 30, 2007 6:49 PM
My opinion!
90 days in a orange suit, picking up trash along road. Case over.
Allen As, did you know that 50% of the car wrecks in Cawell County are caused by deer. If you play golf, you would notice goose crap all over the place. When the yankees move in to our area, they love the deer. A nice guy from NJ brought some land next to my farm. It went nuts when hunting season came in. He asked me,what can we do stop hunting. I saw him a Wal Mart, a few weeks ago, he wanted to know when hunting season came in. He said the damn deer are eating all our flowers. Me I like to see half the deer around here killed.And all the geese. I may start hunting.
Posted on August 30, 2007 9:04 PM
Mrs Sweeten,
Many if not most of the comments at the LTE section were reasoned and well intentioned. Indeed most were not even addressed to you and some were about tomatoes... go figure. I will readily admit it can be a silly place.
However, YOU started the ball rolling with your own "vitriol". Did you not? Shall we review?
"low life mentality", "barbaric", "beneath contempt". You entire letter was intended to degrade and insult millions of hunters. If those are your feelings fine but dont complain about the return on your investment.
We will not ever agree about true hunters and the sport of hunting that is plain to see. But we can agree that dog fighters and those who hunt and leave the game to rot are indeed a kindred evil spirit. I am sorry you cannot see the differance between those folks and true hunters.
I will repeat... unless you are a vegan you have no moral high ground. It is all relative, isnt it?
Posted on August 31, 2007 8:48 AM
Mr. Johnson, your post is about the scariest thing I've read lately. Killing another living thing because it has done something to make you mad? Can you say Columbine, VA Tech? Wow.
And, No Name (funny how an LTE requires a full name, but here you get to hide): each of the quotes you cite were actually quotes from the LTE to which I was responding. The responses, which resorted to what was in parts of my anatomy and making fun of my name (how old are we?), were uncalled for. But I'm all grown up and I can take it. What's the saying? "Consider the source."
I will try one last time. I am not talking about eating meat, leather clothing, vegans, or even talking tomatoes. My point is that what Vick was doing was for entertainment (sport to him) and, although they hide behind the same tired defenses (so if Vick ate the dogs after he killed them, that would be OK?), hunters enjoy what they are doing. I will never in a million years understand the fun in pointing a gun/arrow/what-have-you at another living thing and killing it. (I have a theory about why some men feel the need, but that involves a tape measure.)
Oh, I did drop a tomato once, but I apologized and I ate it, so that's OK.
Anyway, I believe we've about beaten this horse to death (oops). As you said we will never agree, and that's fine. Now, about those talking tomatoes.....
Posted on August 31, 2007 11:54 AM
AS, I make my living with crops. If some steals your money, I except you would be PO. Its the same thing when the deer steal my crops. This morning there where 30-40 deer in my fruit trees, they where all skinny, for people like you that have no clue, there is little for the deer to eat, and water is hard to find. Question do you eat beef, chicken, turkey? If I was half the bad ass you think I am, I just put a pan of anti freeze in my fruit trees. However I know people like to hunt and eat deer. The deer are so bad up here the City of Danville allows bow hunting.So before you attack me come up here and walk in my shoes.
Posted on August 31, 2007 12:48 PM
Didnt mean to remain anonymous.
"I would think hunters, of all people, would understand Vick's low-life mentality." ??? Who said that one? So not all the quotes were from a previous letter, huh.
I do not support or appreciate some of the statements at the LTE site. I have many times complained of vulgar or juvenile behavior at that place. But, I fully maintain that the insulting tone of the conversation was set by you. So, "uncalled for" is misleading at best.
As for your sexist remark.... JUVENILE. How old are you?
As you eat your grilled steak this weekend enjoy your moral relativism.
Michael Riggs
Posted on August 31, 2007 1:12 PM
Mr. Johnson, I think Tony LaRussa is the best manager in baseball, but I too have been baffled by how little criticism has come his way for his lack of leadership on the matter of drinking and driving. No, he did not cause his pitcher, Josh Hancock, to die, but he did set a poor example that certainly did not help the situation. Furthermore, the fact that the Cardinals are owned by a beer manufacturer makes it almost impossible to have an honest discussion about the merits of sobriety while operating an moving vehicle, despite Anheuser Busch's public relations campaign urging its consumers to drink responsibly. Nonetheless, it is a fact that LaRussa broke no federal law as Mr. Vick has admitted by his guilty plea. But what matters most is that editors like you, Mr. Johnson, are pointing out that the behavior of Vick and LaRussa is indefensible, and neither man should be excused. Mr. Vick, of course, will likely have a few hundred days in jail to reflect on his crime. Yet let's not forget that Mr. LaRussa's transgression is far more common, and the deaths that result from drunk drivers are far greater problem for our society.
Posted on September 1, 2007 9:02 AM