Among the greatest pleasures afforded to the human species is the reciprocal affection of domesticated animals. The horses, dogs, and cats in my life have provided me with long time good feeling especially during economic, emotional, and medical turmoil. Experimentation with cows, goats, llamas, and fowl was less successful but never did I cease to watch their lives with wonder.
As the awful story of Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels was told, like many I shuddered at the thought of the contrived viciousness that was produced to entertain the ghoulish creatures that could take pleasure in watching two dogs attacking one another with mortal consequence.
Never did I imagine that yet another degree of horror waited when the revelation came that dogs that, in NFL terms, were cut for under performance faced execution under torturous conditions including electrocution, hanging, and drowning.
The fortunate among us that have experienced the friendship of a dog know the innate desire they hold to please their human partners. Most are quick to grant their confidence under minimal provocation. And that is the crux of the tragedy of Bad Newz Kennels and its owners. Those dogs met their end underage and under brutal circumstance. Without fail they gave themselves to the whim of Vick and his comrades. Those puppies that grew into dogs were the victims of confidence men.
I have seen enough deaths of humans and animals to know that fate is often unkind. But the predations upon these trusting canines were unwarranted and without purpose other than to punish shortcomings and to provide perverse entertainment.
Michael Vick is paying for his crime with incarceration and financial loss. I grieve for his innocent, trusting one-sided friends. Their affection was never returned and no matter what his ultimate penalty tolls , Michael Vick will always be a poorer man for that.