Dog Days
Thursday, August 23, 2007
*Disclaimer: non-IM-related post*
*Disclaimer #2: seeing as though Ironman is nearly upon us, there might be a slight uptick in on-Ironman-related posting to come (he-he!)*
I seem to be one of the only people, as far as I can tell, that I know who is as horrified/intrigued with this whole Michael Vick situation as I seem to be. It's like a train wreck. And every time you try to look away, something else happens.
There's just so many levels on which to be horrified/intrigued, though.
At the very basis is dogfighting itself. As a dog owner/lover, it is outright impossible for me to understand how someone could look in the eyes of an animal that has its full trust in you, only to turn around an torture it by forcing it to fight to the death, electrocuting it, or body-slamming it against the ground repeatedly. And when you see video of these poor pits afterwards, they're all love and kisses -- cuddling up to the shelter workers, wagging their tails at passersby. These dogs would love nothing better than to crawl in your lap; they're just conditioned to fight other dogs (and to kill the occasional cat). Even those who are lucky enough to survive and end up in shelters aren't all that lucky -- most are put down as soon as they're no longer needed for evidence in a particular case, as they just can't be reconditioned. This violation of trust between an animal who has no say over its life and a person who should know better is, at its core, horrific.
But it also makes you wonder. How do people get into this? What is the initial draw? How does an activity so base and violent seemingly get so many people involved -- people who can often afford better forms of entertainment. And how did it go unnoticed for so long?
Another level of being horrified/intrigued rests with my interests in public relations, which in this case, has been an utter debacle from the very start. Los Angeles attorney Harland W. Braun told USA Today, "Second to injuring children, injuring pets is the worst. It's hard to know how to spin it."
Here's a start: you don't.
But most involved in this case came late to that party. Take Falcons owner Aurthur Blank, for example, who said, "As we move ahead [we] need to respect the due process that Michael is entitled to." And then there was Commissioner Roger Goddel, who said that Vick would face "significant discipline" if found guilty ... even though he later admitted that the 18-page indictment against Vick contained details that "turned [his] stomach." Translation: do what you want; just don't get caught.
And now, today, on Today, the NAACP has joined in the media circus. R.L. White, president of the NAACP's Atlanta chapter, said that, "We stand by the characterization that Vick has already been tackled. There's no need to keep piling on him," and that "Michael Vick has received more negative press than if he had killed a human being." Sorry, come again? Since when is media attention surrounding a federal indictment and guilty plea by all involved considered "piling on?" And I'd go out on a ledge to assert that what Vick did was worse than "killing a human being" -- he did not just shoot a dog, or hit one with his car. Rather, he was systematically bred and tortured dogs for years for entertainment and as a money-making venture. When people do those same things, we call them serial killers.
White went on to draw a parallel between Vick's crimes and hunting -- a parallel that other pro athletes have also started to beat the drum on of late. Earlier this week, New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury said: ''We don't say anything about people shooting deers [sic] and shooting other animals, you know what I mean? From what I hear, dogfighting is a sport. It's just behind closed doors.'' Read Chicago Sun-Times columnist Greg Couch's interesting take on this emerging defense here.
One of the most brazeningly-honest assessments of the situation was by ESPN's Jemele Hill, who said this about Vick: "Let his prison sentence send the message that continued allegiance to street culture successfully keeps young black men frighteningly behind in American society." That itself, though, is a whole additional issue altogether.
There's just so much sad and wrong with this case on so, so many levels. But there are silver linings that will hopefully come about eventually as well. It might just be the wake-up call that leagues like the NFL and NBA have needed for a while now to see that players' off-field behavior can have a big effect, not only on impressionable youngsters that look up to them, but on the teams' bottom line. Perhaps it will be a break in the fight against dogfighting that law enforcement seem to so desperately need. And maybe, just maybe, it will be a life lesson for the guy who has referred to himself as "Superman" and is quoted as saying, "Regardless of what I go through, people are going to love me, man. So it’s all good.”
In the meantime, it's been reported that Vick trading cards and figurines bearing his likeness have been turned into chew toys, and Vick jerseys anonymously donated to the Atlanta Humane Society have been turned into pet beds and used to mop up kennels.
Seems about right.
Posted by Erin 8:27 AM
Go Erin!
What a poor example for all those young athletes who wanted to grow up and be just like him. That just sickens me.
Even worse... I was flabbergasted the other day when I heard Jon Stewart point out that the NFL talking heads were going on and on about how the league is actually more concerned about the GAMBLING aspects of the case than the animal torture!!