The story that is impossible to ignore this week is the indictment of
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. He is charged with
dogfighting, a felony, and with other hideous crimes that
traditionally accompany it. I will share some of the coverage below
and encourage you to respond. At the very least, please vote in the
ESPN and NY1 polls.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution front page story, by Bill Torpy and
Bill Rankin, opens with:

July 18, 2007 Wednesday

“Losers allegedly didn’t fare too well with Michael Vick. His pit
bulls were often summarily executed after losing fights, according to
a federal indictment that portrays a disturbing picture of animal
cruelty.

“In April, just before authorities raided his property in rural
Virginia, the Falcons’ star quarterback was there ‘rolling’ some of
his pit bulls — that is, putting them through test fights to see if
they were ‘game,’ federal authorities said.

“Eight of the animals didn’t make the cut, and were executed by Vick
and two co-defendants by ‘hanging, drowning and slamming at least one
dog’s body to the ground,’ authorities allege.

“A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted Vick and three others, accusing
him of taking part in a well-established dogfighting operation.

“The indictment lists numerous dog fights conducted by Vick and his
associates going under the name ‘Bad Newz Kennels’ since 2002. Often
those dogs lost and met terrible fates.

“In March 2003, Vick and others sponsored a 35-pound female pit bull
in a fight that had a $26,000 purse. After the fight, Purnell Peace,
one of the others indicted, consulted with Vick about the losing dog
and Peace then ‘executed the losing dog by wetting the dog down with
water and electrocuting the animal,’ the indictment states.”

It is a Cox News Service article, which you will find in full on line
at http://tinyurl. com/yqcbw8 > You can send letters to the editor at
http://www.ajc. com/opinion/ content/opinion/ letters/sendlett er.html

An outcry from all over the country is appropriate.

Some of the strongest coverage of the issue today was on CBS. You’ll
find both the text and video of their July 18 CBS Evening News story
on line at
http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/ 2007/07/18/ eveningnews/ main3072425. shtml
Please go to that link and post a comment at the bottom of the page.
And please also send the station a quick thank you at
http://www.cbsnews. com/feedback/ fb_news_form. shtml
The video link to CBS Evening News story is headed, “Spotlight on Dog
Fighting.” Underneath it is a link headed, “Dogfighting up Close.”
That takes you to a superb report by Genesis Award winning report Brad
Woodard, from the CBS Houston affiliate KHOU.
It is also on line at
http://www.khou. com/topstories/ stories/khou0707 17_ac_dogfightin g.849c40af. html
Woodard sums up the awful video when he says,
“Television may be a visual medium, but it’s the sounds of animals
screaming in agony to the crowd’s delight that most would find
difficult to stomach.”
Indeed, the soundtrack is stomach-turning. So are the images,
particularly when you see dogs that look sweet-natured and
uninterested in fighting.
In the piece, Assistant District Attorney Belinda Smith says, “There
are instances in the video tape when the dogs are licking each other.
They release them, and they’re licking each other. They don’t want to
fight, yet the handlers bring them back and get them pumped up to
fight. It’s not natural.”
That is hard to hear, knowing those who don’t want to fight will often
die in the ring or be killed by their handlers for being bad fighters.

Please thank KHOU for Brad Woodard’s exceptional coverage. The station
takes comments about news at
http://www.khou. com/customerserv ice/helpcenter. jsp?id=107834116 9000

You’ll find a web exclusive commentary on the MSNBC/Newsweek site, by
Mark Starr, headed “Michael Vick’s Shameful Scandal.”
Starr describes some of the “grisly and gruesome array of savage
misdeeds directed at helpless animals.” And he tells us,
“The NFL, not to mention Blank’s Home Depot empire, are posited
as mainstream American businesses. And there is not a remotely
mainstream note in this sordid affair. Vick is almost certain to see
all his endorsement deals (Nike, Coca-Cola, Rawlings and others)
disappear. While he deserves all the legal protections our society
offers, none guarantee him the right to keep his job as the Falcons
starting quarterback. ”
You can read the whole piece on line at
http://www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 19834860/ site/newsweek/ and most
importantly, give it a positive rating and comment on that page. It
will take you a couple of seconds to give it a five-star rating, and
feedback matters.

Newsweek has more good coverage on the issue, by Steve Tuttle, headed
“An Ugly World” at
http://www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 19836601/ site/newsweek/

ESPN has a survey on dogfighting, which will take you just seconds to
fill out. It asks questions such as whether or not the Falcons should
let Vick go, and whether or not dogfighting is a serious crime. Please
go to the site and take a moment to respond:
http://proxy. espn.go.com/ chat/sportsnatio n/polling? event_id= 3037

NY1 has a snap poll on whether or not Vick should be suspended at
http://www.ny1. com/ny1/Polls/ index.jsp? pollactivequesti onintid=2855

Sports Illustrated’ s George Dohrmann has done two great stories on the
issue for the magazine’s website. You’ll find his coverage at
http://sportsillust rated
.cnn.com/2007/ football/ nfl/07/17/ dohrmann. vick/index. html
and can send him a quick thank you at George_Dohrmann@ simail.com

Angelenos can check out the Los Angeles Times coverage, on the cover
of the July 18 sports section (pgD1), headed “Vick faces several
charges” You’ll find it on line at
http://www.latimes. com/sports/ printedition/ la-sp-vick18jul1 8,1,1972134. story
and can respond with a letter to letters@latimes. com

HSUS president Wayne Pacelle’s blog calls for both the NFL and Vick’s
corporate sponsors to drop him. Check it out at
http://hsus. typepad.com/ wayne/2007/ 07/vick-indictme nt.html

And finally: HSUS has made it easy for you to send a letter to the NFL
urging Vick’s suspension. Just go to
https://community. hsus.org/ campaign/ US_2007_dogfight ing_nfl2/ nqod5jwnj
and fill out the form.

Yours and the animals’,

Karen Dawn

I called & a secretary DOES answer after the phone rings forever. Very nice. She said she would give Goodell the message.

I think I’ll call every day and urge all of you to do so too. We need to be relentless with this issue. There are few activities more heinous than this and if we can’t do one simple thing like make a phone call or send an email, we share in the shame of this cruelty.

Call Roger Goodell at 212 450-2000. Tell him to suspend Vick immediately.

I have seen and heard about much animal abuse but to me, the sport of dogfighting is the most abhorrent abuse. And it’s a dangerous business to investigate. Kudo’s to those investigators who have been following this case for, what appears, years. I have no doubt they dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s with this case. Vick is going down!

Although Katrina is known to have taken some 88,700 animals (still unaccounted for) unfortunately Katrina didn’t take the dog fighting scumbags that were so prevelent throughout the city before the storm. Even while 1,000’s of volunteers spent 14 hour days trying to save the lost, abandoned and abused animals of this city, local dogfighters were back at it within the first month. In the early days, many dogs, notably pit bulls, were disappearing from Lamar Dixon, the staging area set up to house NOLA’s rescued animals. Suspected of this were the dog fighters.

While eating at a restaurant one night, a local resident who sat next to our table told us that he knew where dog fighting was taking place just 2 miles from where we were; taking place as he spoke to us. I was livid! I later tried to get other rescuers to drive by the location with me, but all were too fearful.

He also told us about a very good friend of his who was an undercover cop that had been investigating the local dogfighting ring for about a year. Said dogfighters discovered who he was and slit his throat, killing him and that the NOPD covered up the murder. He told us that local politicians, businessmen and police officers are all involved in this sport. And guess who his undercop friend told him was one of the ring leaders? The owners of Harrah’s Casino!

Nancy Grace is going to town on this guy!

any type of conviction and his “career” is over as are his endorsements. both may be over anyway. that indictment is pretty damning even if he is *innocent*. if he visited his property once, the training equipment should have alerted him as to what was going on . . .

some of these athletes are more trouble than they are *worth* to their endorsements and team. i’d say he’s fiting into that catagory.

Watch for his house on the market. LOL.

He should get more fines and jail time if he ever lives with, owns, or has any live animal in his possesion and control ever, for the rest of his life. This POS should never be allowed to have another animal again, not even a goldfish.