In an interview with "60
Minutes," ex-convict and newly instated NFL
player Michael Vick had this to say about his
ruthless alter ego: "When I was in prison, I was
disgusted because of what I let happen to those
animals. I could have put a stop to it. I could
have walked away from it. I could have shut the
whole operation down."
It looks like this new Vick
has more in common with most of us than the old
Vick. We're disgusted, too. But televised
speeches can be deceiving, and it's too early to
know in what ways and to what extent Vick really
has changed.
The business of dogfighting,
however, has undergone significant change in his
absence. While no less vicious, it's grown more
cunning, clandestine and adaptive to new
technology since Vick brought the underground
activity into the spotlight two years ago.
Mark Kumpf, an investigator
based in Ohio who directs the National Animal
Control Association, made clear in an interview
with CNN that the thugs behind this blood sport
are no dummies. Two new practices that have
emerged since dogfighting came under fierce
scrutiny: mobile venues and Internet broadcasts.
Fights have been staged in
18-wheelers on the go. "If you're driving down
the road, there could be dogs in that truck
driving next to you that are dying," Kumpf said.
And, he said, to avoid large crowds, "we've seen
fights where you've got the two handlers, a
referee and Web cams everywhere broadcasting the
fight on the Internet."
You might conclude that the
attachment of a celebrity athlete to the illegal
activity of dogfighting only served to drive it
further underground and its proponents to new
heights of ambition. But some good has come, as
well.
Experts in law enforcement and
animal welfare agree that the upside of the
publicity from the Vick case is that people are
more informed of what suspicious activity looks
like — and more willing to report it.
Last week The Baltimore Sun
ran a photo of a panting pit bull struggling to
tow his owner through Patterson Park on a
bicycle. Readers were outraged: "Did the
photographer report this suspicious behavior to
the police?" "Did The Sun think it might be
promoting dog fighting by publishing this
photo?" "Doesn't your photographer know that
this poor pit bull is being abused? Pit bulls
wearing heavy weights are being trained for dog
fighting."
And a recent dogfighting case
in Dayton, Ohio, resulted in three convictions
because of a neighbor. According to CNN, "a
neighbor called police when she saw a mangled
dog that had apparently escaped from a home
where investigators found 60 chained pit bull
terriers, many being starved and wallowing in
their own waste."
This kind of abuse is too
inhumane to ignore; these stories too sad to
forget. We are paying attention. The key is to
give more attention to our communities and less
attention to guys like Vick with his coulda,
woulda, shouldas. May he make the best of his
second chance, and may we turn our hearts and
minds to more important things.
Woof!
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
Dog trainer Matthew "Uncle Matty" Margolis is
co-author of 18 books about dogs, a behaviorist,
a popular radio and television guest, and host
of the PBS series "WOOF! It's a Dog's Life!"
Read all of Uncle Matty's columns at the
Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com,
and visit him at www.unclematty.com. Send your
questions to dearuncle.gazette@unclematty.com or
by mail to Uncle Matty at P.O. Box 3300, Diamond
Springs, CA 95619.
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