Interesting article

First off let me say that I love dogs. Growing up we had at least one dog, sometimes two, and I've had three dogs while living here in Cville [Bailey 1, Bailey 2.0, and now Hazel]. Let me also state that I like deer. Not necessarily the deer that leave raisonettes in our backyard for the dogs to roll in and snack on, but the deer that I've hunted. That's right, I hunt[ed] deer. This will be the theme of an upcoming post, but let's get back to the topic at hand.

Michael Vick is alleged to have organized and participated in dog fighting at one of his properties. The public outcry, mostly organized by PETA and other animal rights groups, has been loud and constant against him. There's talk of banning Vick for 1 year from the NFL and cries that he be banned permanently from playing in the NFL. Not for rape, or murder, or buying crack, but for dog fighting.

While it's terrible if he did what he's accused of, it is utterly ridiculous that there is this level of outcry against brutality towards animals when there has not been the same level of emotion concerning violence against people. Take, for an obvious example, the level of outrage following the charges of rape of a 20 yr old placed against Kobe Bryant; while he was booed and picketed, it wasn't to the same degree as Vick has been getting. Not saying that Kobe did it, or that Vick did it, but rather that public reaction against the two disparate charges didn't make sense in light of what they were accused of.

All of this is a lead into a well-written article over at yahoo on this topic written by Michael Silver. It's not the most damning article, but it does begin to put some of this into perspective. You can find the link here.