A signatory of the Duke 88 explains Micheal Vick’s downfall
by Kathy Rudy
As a strong advocate of animal welfare, I despise dogfighting. I have worked in dog rescue for many years, and know firsthand that pit bulls are among the sweetest, most devoted animals on earth. The pit bulls used in the dogfighting ring operated from property owned by Atlanta Falcons star Michael Vick deserved a far better life.
Yet, I find what’s happening with Vick, who pleaded guilty Monday to a felony charge, alarming.
We need to face the fact that dog fighting is not the only “sport” that abuses animals. Cruelty also occurs in rodeos, horse and dog racing (all of which mistreat animals and often kill them when no longer useful). There are also millions of dogs and cats we put to death in “shelters” across the country because they lack a home, and billions of creatures we torture in factory farms for our food.
Vick treated his dogs very cruelly; there is no question about that. But I see one important difference between these more socially acceptable mistreatments and the anger focused on Vick: Vick is black, and most of the folks in charge of the other activities are white.
Some might argue that the difference between dogfighting and these other forms of animal abuse is that dogfighting is illegal. That’s true, but the fact that dogfighting is illegal while other institutions remain acceptable is because dogfighting no longer a sport of the middle and upper class.
Dogfighting (and cock fighting) used to be “sports” enjoyed by the upper classes in the United States and were, then, perfectly legal.
In the last 50 years, however, they have become the domain mostly of blacks, Latinos and poor whites — and were ruled illegal. Now, while white middle and upper classes continue to watch horses run to the point of exhaustion and risk breaking their legs, they regard dogfighting as something that only low-class “thugs and drug dealers” find entertaining. Indeed, a reading of many of the Vick news stories indicts him and his friends as much for being involved in hip-hop subculture as for fighting dogs. Several proponents of animal rights have used the Vick case to draw attention to the widespread abuse of animals, but they are primarily trying to persuade people to become vegans.