Animal Group Puts a Hit on Michael Vick

Michael Vick paid his debt to society for funding an interstate gambling enterprise centered on dog fighting.  Now, he must pay his dues to rebuild his mauled reputation.

He has to put up with animal lovers, like Main Line Animal Welfare in suburban Philadelphia, who sniff at Vick's dogged attempt to rebuild his career.

Main Line cares for dogs, but doesn't give a rip for a person trying to get his life back together.  They ordered a hit on Vick. 

Main Line will donate a five-pound pound bag of dog food to a local animal shelter for every hit on Vick when the Philadelphia Eagles play the Washington Redskins on October 26, according to an ad that appeared in the NFL Supplement of the Wednesday, Sep. 9, 2009, edition of The Washington Post.   

NFL players don't care.  They universally welcomed Michael Vick's return.

As a black "village elder," I'm outraged by Michael Vick's long term interest in dog fighting.  He started his Bad Newz Kennel within days of signing his first NFL contract.

Isn't it curious that anyone who writes any kind of defense of Vick must open with outrage at Vick's crime?  On that, Jeff Lurie and I are as one.

My outrage stems not just from dog fighting, but from Vick's failure to uplift those around him.  Urban males—the nice way of saying black teenagers—get far too many messages glamorizing thug life.  It's pernicious and counterproductive.

Michael Vick was one of the highest paid men...in the world.  Yet, he failed to figure out that having a badass dog didn't make him a badass.  It made him stupid, given everything he had going for him.

I, who marched in the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, needed Vick and other's like him to point the way out of an impoverished background to career success, which you can do nowhere better than in the United States.

I needed the urban teens around me to see that and be inspired by it.

Michael Jordan did that.  Michael Vick did not, and I take it personally.

But these people who get wee-weed up, to use an Obama term, over Vick's return to society are as thick as fleas and just as annoying.      

Main Line Animal Rescue is among the worst.

One supposes that Main Line wanted to tap into anti-Vick sentiment as a pointer to volunteers.  Does hounding Michael Vick do that?  Wouldn't a personal appearance by Vick at Main Line retrieve more? 

Main Line has their tail tucked on that one.  The doggie treat for every Vick hit appears nowhere on their website.

The suspicion about Vick is that his insensitivity about dog fighting exposed him as an insensitive person.  Can an animal welfare group that is insensitive about football players be trusted to care for animals?

I wouldn't treat a dog that way.