Dog Fighting

Did you see where an NFL Football player (I can't remember his name) has been indicted for dog fighting? Isn't that something? How does someone even get involved in this kind of thing?

For my part, I had known in the past that things like this were done, but it's such a sub-culture, so far off the beaten path, that I hadn't even thought about it in years, and wasn't even sure that it still existed, though, sadly, I guess I'm not surprised.

In case anyone doesn't know what this is all about, and I assume that pretty much anyone does, I'm talking about breeding or steeling dogs, usually Bull Dogs, to fight to the death in front of an audience, usually with some pretty heavy betting going on. And if the losing dog happens to survive the fight, they are very often killed while the crowd looks on, sometimes by drowning, or being hanged, sometimes simply shot, and I'm sure there are other ways that don't bear contemplation.

I imagine that someone involved in all of this barbarism would claim that it is a sport, but I, for one, would not buy into that. To me this is a disgusting, reprehensible, outrageous, brutal, grotesque, barbaric, and inhumane (the list goes on and on) activity, and I would hope that anyone convicted of participation would be punished to the fullest extent of the law. While putting these people in the ring and making them fight to the death might be fitting of the crime, I guess it might be going a little too far.

Let me be crystal clear on this subject, I'm not a member of any animal rights organization, nor am I a vegetarian, nor do I place the rights or feelings of animals above the well being of humans, but that is not what this is about. I would find it hard to imagine any person who is not a total sadist would come to the defence of these people, or this practice. I wish the law enforcement community great success in locating and busting these dog fighting rings, and hope that they really throw the book at these people.

I also just learned that the NFL plans to let this man keep playing football, and that Nike will keep selling the shoes that are named after him, at least while the legalities are all sorted out. I can understand contractual obligations and such, but if it were up to me, I'd have benched him and pulled the merchandise anyway. I'm sure they were worried about being sued if they acted too quickly, however, and you'll likely hear this a lot from me, doing the right thing should always be more important than doing the safe thing.

Now, I did not write this today because I thought any of my friends or family would be involved in this kind of thing, I was simply outraged when I realized that it was something that is still going on, and apparently, gaining popularity in some circles, and wanted to get it off my chest and give all of you the opportunity to be as outraged by this as I am.