Vick Case Raises Awareness

The wheels are turning. Hopefully they are the wheels of justice, and Michael Vick will get what he deserves.
The Duke lacrosse case taught several valuable lessons worth repeating as we follow the story of federal dog fighting charges leveled against Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and Virginia Tech product, and three co-defendants. Vick is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Richmond.
Recall first and foremost, despite any impulse to rush to judgment, to believe the worst, under our system of justice an indictment is a formal accusation, not a conclusion regarding guilt or innocence. Vick as defendant is deemed innocent, or at least not guilty, until action in a court of law proves otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt.
That said, it appears clear, whether or not it is proven in court, someone used a Virginia property owned by Vick for up to six years for dog fighting purposes, with dogs tortured and killed as part of doing business. "I never realized there was such a thing," Falcons general manager Rich McKay said at a news conference earlier this week. "I couldn't tell you that there was this situation where people went to watch dogfights. I guess I must be the only one in this room who didn't know that."
In fact, crimes such as dog fighting, cock fighting, and now even stallion fighting in North Carolina are conducted in a manner meant to avoid the notice of law-abiding citizens. Of course there are places in the countryside where a passerby may see hundreds of roosters set out in a field, tethered by one leg, or several dozen pit bulls leashed and minimally sheltered outdoors. Proving they are bred or transported for fighting purposes is a difficult proposition, however.
Efforts to raise public awareness of these issues, and to gain more tools with which to combat abuse, have been going on “for years and years and years,” according to Cindy Bailey, animal control administrator for Durham County. “This has been such a private topic, for too long.”
Increasingly, Bailey said, the connection is made in law enforcement between animal fighting and a constellation of other crimes, such as drug manufacture, illicit gambling, and prostitution. Investigators also find that, in homes where animal cruelty is accepted, child neglect and abuse are apt to follow.
And now the Vick case has broken, a sports figure inadvertently doing more to raise awareness of animal welfare among ordinary Americans than anyone in memory.
“It takes someone famous in order to bring it to light, but that’s usually the case,” Bailey said. “We’ve got a long battle in front of us, but every time somebody like Michael Vick gets caught it’s another feather in our cap.”
Bailey daily sees victims of dog fighting, riddled with scars or lacking ears, at the Durham animal shelter. “We put to sleep thousands of dogs a year that have evidence of animal fighting,” she said. “Proving it and knowing it are two different things.”
Animal shelters must be designed to handle fighting dogs, often confiscated and held for months pending court action. Dogs selected for their predatory and aggressive behavior are necessarily separated from the rest of the animal population -- which they are often trained to attack -- and from each other. Human handlers are at risk too. Kept under wraps for long periods, the doomed dogs develop compulsive habits including self-mutilation.
Dog fighting is not restricted to rural areas or to any socioeconomic group, according to Kelli Ferris, a faculty member at the N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine who works with sheltered animals, teaches courses on recognizing and handling animal cruelty, and is herself an animal cruelty investigator in Wake and Lee counties. “It’s not just the poorly educated segments of the society that seem to be drawn to this,” she said. “As unfortunate at it is for the animals involved in the Michael Vick case, whoever turns out to be the owner, the one good thing is that it’s brought attention to the plight of the dogs.”
Urban fights may take place in basements or abandoned buildings, or occur fleetingly in a park. Bailey said a new practice in North Carolina is “trunk fighting,” in which pit bulls are placed in the trunk of a car and bets placed on which emerges alive when the drive has ended.
Ferris, a member of the NC Task Force Against Animal Fighting, said that, just as Paris Hilton uses tiny dogs as fashion accoutrerments, so a trend has emerged for young men trying to project a “tough-guy” image to use fighting dogs as a prop. “If you’ve got a Hummer and a pit bull, you’re set,” she said.
Whether Vick took that image a step further in his private life has yet to be determined. He most assuredly will get the best legal advise representation available. Unlike the Duke lacrosse players, Vick is no child of privilege, but after signing a 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons in 2004, he should not be hurting for funds, either. His salary this season is $6 million, not counting endorsement revenue off the field.
That income is in jeopardy while Vick awaits the judgment of a federal court, the NFL, Atlanta owner Arthur Blank, and Nike, which markets athletic footwear branded with his name. To the credit of Roger Goodell, the new NFL commissioner, Vick already has been told to stay away from the Falcons until further notice. With pay.
The verdict of public opinion will emerge in time, hopefully not influenced by anything other than the actions of the individuals involved. But if past experience is a guide, Vick will soon return to the football field and a hero’s status. Perhaps he should. “I know Michael Vick as a very caring, a very concerned, a very good person,” said Frank Beamer, his coach at Virginia Tech, “and I’m going to wait until this is all said and done to change any of my thoughts or change any of my observations, really.”
Ironically, the USA Today article reporting Goodell’s interim decision on Vick ran immediately above a story about Kobe Bryant, rehabilitated in public estimation after an admission of improper sexual behavior in an alleged assault on a female Colorado hotel worker in 2004. (The married player insisted the sex was consensual.) The same sports section had two stories about Barry Bonds’ attendance-boosting pursuit of the Major League career home run record, a quest shadowed by persuasive evidence the San Francisco Giant boosted his performance with steroids and human growth hormones.
For now, anyway, Vick stands not as a hero, but as a poster child for the cruelest of sports. We love dog stories, but not this kind.
“We have to change the way people feel and what they think and what they believe is acceptable,” said Ferris, the NC State vet. She would like to see Vick remain a well-paid player with, say, half his earnings going to public awareness campaigns about animal welfare and the viciousness of animal fighting.
Some of us might wish a more appropriate punishment for the scrambling quarterback and his associates, if proven guilty – put them unarmed in a large, enclosed space with pit bulls trained for fighting, and close the door.