NFL Dog Fighting

Former National Football League quarterback Michael Vick put family pets in rings with pit bulls and thought it was funny watching the trained killers injure or kill the helpless dogs, a witness told federal investigators during the dog-fighting investigation that brought Vick down. In a 17-page report by case agent James Knorr of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Vick placed pets in the ring against pit bulls owned by “Bad Newz Kennels” at least twice and watched as the pit bulls “caused major injuries.” The witness said Vick and co-defendants Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips “thought it was funny to watch the pit bull dogs injure or kill the other dogs.” Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison and is due to be released from the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, on July 20, 2009. The report also details the killing of several dogs at property Vick owned on Moonlight Road in Surry County. It says Vick was administered a polygraph test by the FBI in October 2007 and denied taking part in the killing of dogs. When told he had failed that part of the test, Vick recanted his story and admitted to helping hang six to eight under-performing dogs. The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, once the highest paid player in the NFL, has been suspended indefinitely by the league and his football future is uncertain. He’s also in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings with $16 million in assets and $20.4 million in liabilities. Peace, who also was convicted in the case, said there were times he suggested that dogs unwilling to fight be given away, but that Vick said “they got to go,” meaning be killed. The dogs were killed by shooting, hanging, electrocution and drowning, and in at least one instance Vick and Phillips killed a red pit bull by “slamming it to the ground several times before it died, breaking the dog’s back or neck.” Vick also said he purchased his first pull bull while a student at Virginia Tech in 1999. Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter commented on the possible reinstatement of Michael Vick when he gets out of prison, "He's already been punished enough," said Porter, who owns a pair of pit bulls. "They gave him his penalty. He paid his penalty. What else should they do to him now? All it was was just dogs. They don't even like pit bulls anyway. That's the funny thing about it. I got pit bulls, I got to put them under a different breed just to travel. So you can't even fly pit bulls nowhere. It's a breed nobody likes and they don't care about. It's not like he was fighting cocker spaniels. They don't really care too much about pit bulls, so what's the bid deal?" Profootballtalk.com has reported that Porter let his pitbull loose and it killed a miniature horse.

Commentary?: What can you say about people that have no conscience? They do not see anything wrong with what they do. They are completely amoral and proud of it. For these guys, killing dogs and other animals is entertainment and fun. Too bad those dogs that were victimized by Michael Vick and others never got a chance to shoot back when they were being killed. Though most dogs are so faithful that they would not bite their owners even if they knew they were going to be killed. Dogs are Man's Best Friend, too bad that sometimes Man is not a good friend to dogs.