Poll

Does Michael Vick deserve a 2nd chance with the NFL?

Yes.  He's learned his lesson, so the NFL should reinstate him.
No way.  What he did is unforgiveable.
Let's give him some time to see if his remorse is genuine.
Other (post comments below).

Author Topic: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail  (Read 4779 times)

Offline Chuckster

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Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« on: May 20, 2009, 12:49:43 PM »
Former NFL star, Michael Vick has been released from federal prison and is on his way home to finish off his sentence.  In case anyone is unfamiliar with Vick's case, he was found guilty of financing a dog fighting ring and torturing underperforming dogs.  From recent reports, it appears that he will be working a $10 p/h construction job and will also have some form of involvement with the Humane Society in educating others about the horrors of dog fighting.

So...should the NFL reinstate Michael Vick so he may return to his former superstar pro football days?

Michael Vick leaves prison for home confinement

And on a happy note:

CNN - Vick's pitbulls recovering
The Chuckster has spoken!

Offline madalyn

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2009, 01:27:13 PM »
Yeah - Vick should be allowed back into the NFL - dressed as a dog, as the team mascot.

Offline Queenskid

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2009, 11:29:06 AM »
The "justice" part of me says yes.  He's served his time.  Every other part of me says no!  He didn't need to do this. He didn't need the money to feed his family. He was a rich man. 

One aspect of dog fighting that has not been publicized is the use of other poor animals--cats and dogs-- as training fodder for the pit bulls.  Many times the fighting rings will adopt an animal from a shelter, tape it's mouth shut, or in the case of a cat cover their claws, and throw it into a ring to be torn to  shreds by a dog they are training.  People don't want to hear this, but some fighting rings will steal family pets from backyards or wherever and subject them to the same fate. It's horrible.

Getting back to Vick, he didn't spend enough time in jail.

Offline Chuckster

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2009, 12:06:14 PM »
One aspect of dog fighting that has not been publicized is the use of other poor animals--cats and dogs-- as training fodder for the pit bulls.  Many times the fighting rings will adopt an animal from a shelter, tape it's mouth shut, or in the case of a cat cover their claws, and throw it into a ring to be torn to  shreds by a dog they are training.  People don't want to hear this, but some fighting rings will steal family pets from backyards or wherever and subject them to the same fate. It's horrible.

As a pet owner that dearly loves her dog, I find it heartbreaking and very disturbing to read this.  With respect to theft, I'm always very mindful of my dog when walking her as a result of a scare we had when she was a puppy.  Because she's small, a few people have asked if they may pick her up, and I've very adamantly opposed that.

I recently read another news report about a Queens woman that brutally beat her small dog and left it for dead in the local street garbage.  She claimed that it was difficult to take care of both a child and a dog.

Queens woman beat poodle, stuffed it in a suitcase, left it to die in trash: cops

And an update to the story:

Woman Jailed for Stuffing Abused Poodle in Suitcase

The Chuckster has spoken!

Offline liam0925

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2009, 05:05:03 PM »
Like the Chuckster, I am a pet owner and love my dog.  What Michael Vick did was barbaric but something quite common in parts of the South.  Cock fighting, bull fights, greyhounds starved to race better---all these so called sports while popular and acceptable in some cultures appall me.  I believe here in NYC they should be prosecuted each and every time they are discovered. "When in Rome do as the Roman do..." Our celebration of diversity does not need to accept what is patently wrong.
That being said, it seems that more and more we are regressing to a "Scarlet Letter" type mentality that calls for punishments that are excessive and yet never sufficient.  We seem less and less able to forgive or to believe in rehabilitation and that type of behavior isn't something to be proud of.
Michael Vick broke the law.  He was caught.  He was arrested, tried, convicted and incarcerated,  He has served his sentence and is now under house confinement.  Soon he will be a free man again, and as such he should be able to again take his place in the community, and be able to support himself.  We don't have to invite him over for a barbecue, or go to one of his games and cheer him on but I do think as a  society we have to let him get on with his life.

Offline madalyn

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2009, 09:34:20 AM »
If our prisons were a source of rehabilitation, this answer might be a bit more palatable.  I suspect Mr. Vick has learned nothing about his capacity for cruelty and heartlessness except to see to it that he does not  get caught the next time.

Offline liam0925

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2009, 12:59:23 AM »
Our prisons should be a source of rehabilitation, but they are not.  Michael Vic shouldn't be punished because of our systemic failure to demand prisons that not only serve up punishment for crimes committed but also offer modalities that enable rehabilitation.

Offline madalyn

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2009, 06:53:44 AM »
You're right, of course, but everybody loses in the process.

Offline Arlinda

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #8 on: June 20, 2009, 12:08:01 AM »
Michael Vick is a monster ... a very rich and successful and famous and powerful monstrosity.  The walls of his sports arenas attached to the house in which he lived were covered in blood.  He even had tables and chairs and booze and food for the onlookers affording his close friends with the best seats in the arena.  He had rape rooms for female pit bulls who he bred without stopping.  He even bred puppies to be used as prey for the fighting dogs to bite and chew on.  He had torture chambers for the dogs who could or would no longer fight. He would beat them with chains and then tie them to the bloody chain.  He'd make them well enough and would beat them again with the same chain.  Vick wanted them to smell their own blood.   He had special equipment to kill the dogs no longer useful to him. They suffered the supreme torture.  He would kill them slowly ... bringing them close to death with small doses of electricity.  Reviving them and electrocuting them again all night and all day long until the poor animal finally died.  The ones he hung died even worse deaths.  Pit bulls have thick muscled necks so he hung them slowly tightening the noose.  It would take hours.  He fed the dogs the remains of those he killed.  He reserved these activities for himself because he enjoyed the suffering ... slow and unimaginably painful.  Ya think anything we decent people know is going to fix this burden to the earth!!!!

In addition to the $50 plus million dollars he would make from football and endorsements, Vick made $10,000 to $20,000 at every fight in which his dogs won and he knew how to keep his killing machine underground.  He enjoyed foiling the authorities who tried to stop him.  Vick made it a family business.  They didn't teach him about dog fighting.  He taught them.  They sent him to college.  He was no backward poor slob.   He was a smart college educated rich football player who knew how to run a criminal empire.  He had the kind of money and power and smarts to invest in big houses on big pieces of real estate that afforded him  all that privacy to endulge in his criminal actvities.    He was the consumate sociopath and smart enough to abuse and profit from the least powerful in our society ... pets.

The worst of what he did was revealed in the puppies that survived his house of death.  Because his pit bulls became wards of the state when the government took his assets, the big bad government could not bring itself to kill these fighting dogs.  The big bad government entered into an agreement with two professors of zoology with a specialty in animal behavior who believed they could rehab these animals.  They came to take these dogs by night in vans and cars to a place they bought away from society.  Out of the one hundred or so dogs they saved only two were beyond saving.  They were psychotic.  There was nothing that could be done for this poor unfortunates.  They were euthanized.

What the professors proved was astounding and amazing and tragic and heart rending and they caught it all on video tape.  When these puppies were finally brought to their new rehab home and put in separate cages, they were not aggressive towards one another.  There was no aggressive barking or growling at their former adversaries.  The handlers could not believe what they saw.  They expected the worst.  The husband and wife professors knew better.  Their theory about pit bulls was so radical it needed massive amounts of evidence to prove its authenticity.  Even they were stunned by the immediate cordiality of the puppies and their complete lack of combativeness.  It wasn't there because Vick wasn't there.

Their theory about pit bulls (they owned two of them) centered around a pit bulls unique devotion to their caretakers.  The problem was that there was not enough observable evidence to prove it.  Each day they allowed more and more puppies to gather and live together.  No fighting and no aggression.  But that is not rehab.  They also had to be trained to live with families in a loving and non aggressive way.  It worked.  The puppies became loving and friendly and cuddly and sweet.  They preferred to be with their human trainers more than anything and did everything asked of them.  Aggression towards those they did not know was immediately and successfully stopped with a touch.  Pit bulls learned fast what pleases their owners.  And once the behavior was learned it was not forgotten. 

The rehabed puppies went to families with young children and not one incident ever happened.  A few pit bulls who were too high energy to be around little children were placed with families with grown children  or single owners.  There were no incidents of biting or aggressive behavior towards other people.  None!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The proof was there.  No editing.  No staged instances.   All of Vick's puppies  were adopted out to families with children.  The dogs were scrutinized like no other living creature because the government had to be sure that these so called "killers" could be redeemed.  The puppies did not act out of hate.  They acted out of love.

Only the most hardened of people could not weep over this new found knowledge that "fighting dogs/pit bulls"  were willing to fight and  kill themselves to please their owner and Michael Vick knew his pit bulls loved him ... so much better to kill and torture and maim them if he felt they didn't love him enough.  Perhaps they were in so much pain from proving themselves they physically could not fight or kiss him.   They suffered fates worse than death because Vick had to punish them.

The professors believed that although pit bulls are so anatomically constructed that their jaws are deadly, their ability and use for fighting does not stem from that anatomical killing jaw.  It comes from pit bulls' incredible almost insane love of their master for whom they will kill themselves if they know it pleases the person they love.  Like racehorses who will run themselves to death to win, pit bulls will fight to the death for the love of their caretakers.  Vick used their love of him to kill them and torture them and profit off of their suffering.

He lied to PETA to gain their trust.  He told them he only tortured and abused his fighting dogs.  It was a lie.  Witnesses saw him torture all his animals including his pets.  So much for dog fighting as a cultural thing.  Slavery was a cultural thing too. 

He profited and enjoyed the suffering of the helpless who loved him.  God may forgive this monstrosity, the National Felony League may forgive this destestable scumbag, football lovers may not be able to do without this burden to the earth and the media will most certainly miss his disgusting presence but enough is enough.   I hope that if he returns to the public arena of football that there will be enough animal lovers and decent people in our society to boycott that sport and any product advertised by football.  We've brought down governments using this method and we can certainly bring down this Frankenstein NFLer.

Vick should suffer as the animals he abused suffered.  Jail is not suffering or rehabilitating.  Jail is a place where people go to pay for their crimes and keep society safe for a time.  Unfortunately, it is also a place for people like Vick to instruct others on the art of torture and abuse of animals. He is beyond redemption. If he were sorry, he would creep into anonymity and work for almost nothing for a good cause.  His shame and sorrow would cripple him.  He would feel like a pariah and beg God on his knees for forgiveness.  Not Mr. Vick.  He's panting to get back in the game and the adulation of the fans and that is not redemption.  That's getting away with everything.  By time he gets through with his so called rehabilitation he'll have us believe the puppies abused him ... like OJ who always considered himself the real victim of his own crimes.  And, there are people who'll believe him and forgive him and make him rich again.

 He should never be allowed near any animal ever again.   I hope he dies as he lived in an arena of blood and suffering. I hope his blood smears the walls like those who bled for him because they loved him.

Michael Vick thy name is killer.

Offline Jeffsayyes

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #9 on: June 20, 2009, 07:06:34 AM »
I say he payed the penalty for his crime and he shouldn't be punished beyond what the court deemed. :police:

That being said, the free market dictates whether or not nfl teams will hire him. I highly doubt they will. No matter how good is, hiring him would be a tremendous PR deathtrap. He will probably go the way of barry bonds. left alone to play with himself.

Offline Arlinda

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2009, 10:13:06 PM »
I say he payed the penalty for his crime and he shouldn't be punished beyond what the court deemed. :police:

That being said, the free market dictates whether or not nfl teams will hire him. I highly doubt they will. No matter how good is, hiring him would be a tremendous PR deathtrap. He will probably go the way of barry bonds. left alone to play with himself.

I wish he'd play in the La Brea tar pits.

Offline NYCGori

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Re: Poll: Michael Vick out of jail
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2009, 08:19:02 PM »
For me this is not an issue of Vick serving out a sentence.  Even putting aside the issue of legalities, and whether or not the sentencing guidelines for animal cruelty are tough enough, I believe that pro sports should join professions like medicine and law in prescribing a higher ethical responsibility for their members.  Pro sports players carry a huge responsibility to the public as role models; any lawyer or doctor who had done what Vick did would have been disbarred/stripped of their license.  Anyone who has displayed the cruelty, depravity, and basic lack of ethics that Vick has, has in my opinion lost the right to serve as a role model and has shown their complete disregard and disrespect for their fans.