I could've gone the rest of my life without seeing that picture. How can anyone defend this?

I guess by saying "It's only a dog"........ It's only a dog, God I hate that phrase.

I don't know if lucky is the right word, but that dog looks lucky to be alive.

What's even more sad, that poor dog has probably been so badly abused it will probably never be a socialized animal again.
The best it can probably hope for is living the rest of it's life in a cage with little or no human love and affection. That is if it's lucky enough to be in a no kill shelter. I assume it is or it would've already been put down.

Hopefully it can be rehabilitated and live the rest of it's years in a loving environment.


This should be on billboards all over the U.S., it may make people sick but that's the point.

IMO, The people defending vick's actions were using hunting as a means to introduce race into their argument.

There are many differences between hunting and dog fighting.

1.The dogs are caged their entire lives.
2.Abused in order to make them more aggressive.
3.forced to fight in a life and death struggle where they are ripped apart in the process. Even the winners endure terrible pain and injuries.
4.The losing dogs, if not killed during the fight,they are killed afterward. In vick's case, the losing dogs were electrocuted, wet down and then electrocuted, drowned, hanged, beaten to death, or shot.
5.The dog fighters routinely use the smaller, weak, or older dogs as practice for their main fighting dogs. They call this "rolling'em"
6.They have also been known to steal people's pets to use as "roll dogs", typically docile, small or old dogs.
I learned about this when my 2 Labs went missing a few yrs ago. I was speaking with someone from animal control and they told me of this possibility.
I also donate my time, dog/cat food, and money to T.E.A.R.S an animal rescue service and shelter. They see this more often than people would think. ........Very sad

Hunting,
1.The various animals, deer, turkey, ducks, geese, etc.
Live their lives in the wild never having to endure captivity or abuse

2.Most hunters spend a lot of time practicing in order to make a quick kill. This is good ethics on the hunter's part.
A quick kill serves two purposes,
A) A very quick death for the animal in order to minimize suffering.
B) Less time and effort spent tracking downed game.

3.Hunting provides food for the hunter and his or her family. There are also programs in most states where venison can be donated to the various shelters to feed the homeless. The meat is extremely high in protein and very low in fat. It also tastes great.

4.Hunting is regulated by State and Federal authorities in order to maintain a healthy animal population. In some places deer need to be (harvested) killed due to their huge populations. This is more humane than letting them starve to death or die from disease.
Deer are also considered a nuisance in some places, as well as geese. They become a hazard to driving and have caused many deadly accidents.

5.Lastly.Hunting produces a huge economic impact. The money made from leasing hunting land has kept many forests from being cut down.
In most States, money raised from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses go back to the Dept of Fish and Wildlife. In Alabama that money is used for further conservation such The Forever Wild Program. This program buys large tracts of pristine land and forever dedicates the land for public use, and left totally wild. So far the State has purchased nearly 200k acres.

IMO the differences between hunting and dog fighting are more than obvious.

To sum it up.
Hunting has a rightful place in our society, for food, and conservation.

I've been thinking about this.

The majority of those voicing support for vick seem to be predominately African Americans, or groups who claim to represent the AA community. The NAACP, Marbury and other athletes, etc.etc.
There also seems to be an attempt by these people and grps. to add a racial undertone to the issue where there is not one.

Why?

I'm sure the majority of African Americans are against animal cruelty. I would like to hear more community leaders and athletes come forward denouncing vick's actions and dog fighting in general.

I think it's safe to say, the majority of hunters are white. Comparing hunting to dog fighting
IMO, is an attempt to make this a racial issue.
There is no comparing the two.
The fact that an animal is killed is the only comparison.

The cruelty these dogs endured, even before they engaged in the actual fight, and then the unspeakable cruelty the dogs had to endure after they lost or didn't perform up to par ie... electrical shock, drowning, beating etc. all of which ended in the dogs death.
Again, this isn't close to being comparable with hunting.

The vick case is about animal cruelty in the worst way and animal cruelty only.

Young people admire vick, when big name people or org.s come forward defending his actions, they send a terrible message to those kids, ie... Dog fighting is a sport that is no different than hunting, and,
"It's only a dog"..... WTF.

This is a disturbing thing. We've all heard the stats that say people with a history of abusing animals as kids are more likely to be abusive or killers as adults. We certainly don't want to legitimze this behavior.

When you have that much particulate in the air, coming from burning and crumbling buildings, it was a given. FDNY has many firefighters who had or still have severe respiratory problems resulting from the exposure to all of the stuff in the air post 9/11. Many firefighters careers have ended because of these problems, and many will probably die as a result of this stuff. Asbestos is probably the most hazardous, but I would imagine silica, which will cause severe respiratory problems, was also very high. The number of people who were exposed to, and have or will have problems from this will be enormous. They could be adding more names to the list of dead from 9/11 for years to come. Very sad..

it's not just the "good ole boys", the problem is wide spread among public officials. Locally we have city council members, county commissioners, heads of two year college systems, political appointees from both sides of the isle, etc..etc.. getting busted for misappropriating public money, giving jobs and contracts to relatives, giving scholarships to students who don't attend schools, using public money and county contractors to build private homes out of state. the list could go on and on. Unfortunately these officials are democrat and repugs, black and white, male and female. I believe we should add a new law making it a crime to abuse the publics trust, make it an offense that is added to other corruption charges. These people not only steal the publics money or land, they steal the trust of the people, making the public unable to trust their government even after the offenders have been caught and prosecuted, and IMO that is the worst part of their crimes.

I know when race is mentioned, it sounds even worse, but IMO we need to emphasize this was a case of classism. The majority affected were black, but many were white, their common denominator, almost all were poor. When race becomes a focal point, we leave out many of the victims, and I believe people need to be reminded that the governments failure, was a class failure, which clearly shows who the repugs are there for, and who they care about and who they don't. When the repug government fails it's poor people before, during and after an event like katrina, when all the resources of the government could have been used with no objections from anyone, they failed. This clearly shows their heart, they will never do anything for the benefit of the poor, they only care about the wealthy citizens of this country, and the big corps, and too hell with the rest.

Shining shoes and dirt, dirty black people, that is disturbing to me, it has a racist tone, and I find it offensive.

The evil past of slavery can never be wiped clean, not with money, not with policy.
Slavery is an eternal stain on the fabric of the United States.
I view slaves, and their oppressed descendants as honorable heroes, who's toils and pains should be praised and honored. A slave, a servant, a shoe shiner, any labor, forced on a human through oppression, should be held in the highest esteem. The shoe shine boys, the share croppers, the servants, they rebelled, rebelled against the status quo and many died for their civil rights, and for the rights, hopes and dreams of future generations. When such phrases conjure up images, I see images of heroes.