The two Michael Vick posts continue to generate comments. What this proves is that this is still such a serious and emotional issue that people can’t and won’t let go. Good. And they shouldn’t. I’m tired of the animals being forgotten about as this country moves on to the next newsworthy thing. May this Michael Vick news continue to trump Harry Potter, Lindsey Lohan’s imminent jail time and Posh and Becks moving to the states.
I don’t think you have to be an animal lover to acknowledge that what has gone on here is disgusting and that the perps need to be punished. I spent a mind numbing hour watching Nancy Grace discuss this topic Thursday night and of course someone compares this to the Kobe Bryant case. Good god people, can you be any stupider? A quick take at the facts:
1) Whatever happened in Bryant’s hotel room remains unknown. Did a crime occur there? Was the girl raped or was she just a starfucker? Who knows. Who cares really. You go up to a guy’s hotel room you dumb cunt, and you’re asking for it. Women’s rights advocates be damned.
2) Did a crime occur at the house of Michael Vick. Absofuckinglutely. There is NO QUESTION that a crime occurred. The question becomes, who is responsible and how will they be punished?
While I hate Nancy Grace for her dramatics and still owe her a letter from the “Velvet reminds you that two ugly people should not reproduce so why the fuck are you knocked up” file, she made a good point. One of the guys indicted will no doubt turn on the rest and rat out. There is no honor among thieves.
Now, all that said, has anyone ever seen a dog fight? Not necessarily the ones that go on in the underground here in D.C. or Baltimore (yes, they do, get your head out of your ass) but just any dog fight anywhere? I have. I’ve been in the middle of one so bad I had blood all over me. But, I had to save my little Thora, who was attacked by a mixed breed aggressive dog with a spotty history. Fight details in a minute.
There is no such thing as a bad dog. Do you all get that? It is worth repeating. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD DOG. There are only bad owners. Write it down, make it your screensaver and tattoo it on your forehead. When a puppy is born, he has the same chance as any other dog to become aggressive or submissive, a good housepet or a good guard dog, depending on the environment. Dogs are products of their environment because that is all they know. Keep a dog separated from people and other animals and don’t socialize it? It will be shy or aggressive. Beat the dog, tie it up outside with no food or water? Food aggression. Train it to fight and it becomes a fighter. Take it into your home, love it, feed it and make it part of your family and it will be a great dog. Got it? But that defense only applies to dogs. Not people. So stop saying “Michael Vick is a product of his environment.” He has a brain, and he’s an adult, and he made these decisions his own damn self.
All right. So the fight. A few months back Thora is laying in the grass (but on a leash) at my friend’s apartment complex in Phoenix and a dog gets out of its leash and jumps on her. What happens next is a 10 minute, grueling dog fight that just won’t fucking stop. I got on top of the other dog and grabbed it from around the neck. Its owner is yelling (from 10 feet away mind you) to pull my dog by the leash to separate them. Bitch, your dog’s teeth are THROUGH THORA’s fucking forehead. How am I going to do that without hurting my dog? There really was no breaking this up – not without two people. Until my 9 month pregnant friend heard the commotion and came running out to help me, this fight was not going to end.
All of us covered in blood, my friend, Thora and I went back to her house to clean her up. Her ear was almost torn off, and she had cuts on her head and neck. She winced in pain for several days and we couldn’t get a collar around her neck. Dog fights can be vicious, and you can’t reason with a dog to stop fighting. They don’t understand that.
Sidenote for what I learned during all this: The proper way to treat dog bites both on humans and on dogs is surprisingly to not stitch them up. It is very important to let the infection drain.
The proper way to break up a dog fight requires two people. I was wrong to grab that other dog in a choke hold because it could have bitten me, but without the other owner helping me, and with Thora in peril, I just couldn’t think of anything but my baby. The real way to break a fight, if you see one, is for each person to grab the hind legs of one of the dogs and pulls them apart until they can no longer engage in the fight due to the lack of mobility. Turn the dogs 180 degrees in a semi circle away from the other dog so each is facing the opposite way. Leash them up or otherwise restrain them until you can get them completely separated.
To repeat that dogs are true reflections of their environments is an understatement. Thora was losing that fight and she wasn’t giving up. Thora also doesn’t start fights, but if she ends up in them, she goes for the count. Exactly like her mama.
Thora on right.
Back to Vick. To blame this on pit bulls being a “bad and aggressive” breed is just naive. These dogs are not aggressive by nature. No dog is. It is how they are treated which makes them aggressive. To make this an issue of race, also stupid. People! Stop crying the race card for christsakes. It’s getting fucking old already.
At the Washington Humane Society, you cannot adopt a pit bull. The Pits that are picked up off the street must wait 7 days for an owner to reclaim them, then are destroyed. This is an outrage. It isn’t just the the fact that Vick allegedly had this dogfighting ring, he was also a breeder! A fucking breeder! This man was forcing dogs to breed, not spaying or neutering them, and sending them to a life of violence. Apparently his “breeder’s card” was revoked. Whatever. Like anyone needs a license to breed dogs. Breeding dogs is irresponsible people, so fix your fucking pets and stop with this crap about “oh he’s so cute, let’s let him have babies.” Vick’s former website, mv9kennels.com, is now down. Yeah. Like he wasn’t up to something illegal…
An animal that has a miserable life and a torturous death is an animal who came in contact with the wrong human being. There are no bad dogs. Only bad owners.
