They shoot horses, don't they?

And we don't need the ladies,

crying cause the story's sad...

Susan Estrich, Michael Vick CON

"Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter," Billy Martin said this week, referring to his celebrity client, dog killer Michael Vick.

Does that include the eight dogs he killed and the countless others he abused? Does it include the ones placed on treadmills, whose jaws were pried open with sticks or those that were fastened to the "rape stand," a device found on Vick's property to hold down female dogs so they could be forced to breed?
...
I hope the judge throws the book at him. I hope the NFL bans him forever.
...
It is what this says about the man that troubles me.

Whenever a pit bull comes into the local park where I take my two much-loved beauties, Judy Jarvis Estrich and Molly Emily Estrich, the other dog owners and I carefully scrutinize its owners. American Staffordshire terriers, as some call them, can be wonderful pets if properly trained. Or not. It only takes a minute or two to tell the difference, and it totally depends on how the owner has raised them. It's not the dog's fault; it's the owners'. Michael Vick is the worst of the worst.

He doesn't understand what sport is, which is why he should never be allowed to play in the pros again. I understand personal weaknesses of players and appreciate the pressures of competitive sports. When an athlete resorts to steroids or uses drugs, he obviously brings shame to the team and the league. But in such cases, he is hurting himself, not innocent animals that depend on him. Vick's crime is of a far more vicious sort, revealing a character for which there can be no excuse and no forgiveness.
...
The NFL says it will continue to investigate Vick's conduct in relation to its own code of conduct. The Atlanta Falcons, the team paying him all that money, is withholding judgment, waiting to see if the plea, in the words of Falcons owner Arthur Blank, will allow Vick "to get this behind him as quickly as he can."

As far as many of us who are pet owners and animal lovers are concerned, he will never get this behind him. Nor should he.

...
Patrick Reusse, Michael Vick rehabilitation PRO

Robert Byrd, the 89-year-old Democrat from West Virginia, is the longest-serving member of the United States Senate in history. On July 19, he took to the floor of that distinguished body to comment on the dogfighting allegations against Michael Vick and his cronies. "Barbaric!" Byrd shouted, while also pumping his first. "Let that word resound from hill to hill, and from mountain to mountain, and valley to valley across the broad land. Barbaric! May God help those poor souls who'd be so cruel. Barbaric!"
...
Certainly, it's nauseating to read details of this dogfighting culture, but I think we're being as naive about this as we were about steroids in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were staging the home run race. Then, we wanted to believe the mammoth home runs we were seeing were the results of diligent offseason workouts, and now we want to believe Vick and his pals are more villainous than tens of thousands of other dogfighters in this country.

Remember the dogfighting episode we had in Chisago County four summers ago? Law enforcement officials walked in on the fights at a farm. Tommie McClellan and Neal Burton both pled guilty to the felony of cruelty to animals involving fights. McClellan paid a fine of $750 and Burton of $500. Their sentences were suspended and they were placed on five years of probation.

Vick's operation was much bigger -- more dogs, higher stakes -- but it is puzzling how dogfighting has gone from a dirty little secret with modest punishment to the Crime of the New Millennium because of Vick's involvement.
...
The idea that the Michael Vicks of the world would take another breed of dog and torture it into fighting for its life is barbaric, as the old senator from West Virginia bellowed last month. But why is it that dogfighting has been taking place in urban alleys and in backwoods barns forever and nearly all of the culprits have been allowed to get off with a little more than a stern warning? And now it's Michael Vick, so he's headed to federal prison?

Everyone involved in dogfighting is a sick puppy -- not just Vick. He'll have a year in a cell to think about that. And then Goodell should forget the grandstanding and allow Vick to return to the NFL immediately.