It is not just Michael Vick

This article is not my own. I would love to share it with you though. This article is written by Arlington Vegan ExaminerBarbara DeGrande

I don't know if I could've written this better myself.

"Sports figures and other celebrities provide a target for many of the fears, angers and concerns that society develops. Some people are angry at Mr. Vick for the horrendous abuse and torment he put his dogs through, an activity he admits to having enjoyed. Most people find his behavior callous and repulsive; Mr. Vick admittedly caused animals to suffer for his own enjoyment. He tells of police pulling over and noting it was just dogs fighting, getting back in the patrol car and driving away. He thought that gave him permission. He thought it was cool. He thought it was fun. He thought it was exciting. He drowned dogs, he beat dogs, he electrocuted dogs. His behavior was indicative of sociopathy and a total lack of feeling for other beings. But before we vilify Mr. Vick, we may need to look long and hard in the mirror. Maybe we are all, to some extent, Michael Vick.

We protest: I would never enjoy hurting a dog! I would not want to see animals fight! I would never make an animal suffer for my own enjoyment! Oh, really? Do you use makeup or hand lotion? If so, chances are some poor animals were made to suffer in order to test those chemicals for your pleasure. There are other options, but it takes effort to find them. Have any leather shoes, belts, wallets, purses? Chances are, many animals had their lives cut short and were subjected to every imaginable horror to give you the stash of leather goods. While you may squirm a bit if you had to watch their deaths, you are still willing to encourage their suffering by buying the goods. No, you do not do the killing yourself, not directly; you may even find the thought of it very disturbing. But if you buy the product, you are encouraging someone else to do the killing and you are rewarding them for it. Just like Michael Vick.

Then there is your plate. How many animals have short, painful, terrifying lives because you want the unhealthy pleasure of consuming their flesh, their secretions, their stomach lining, their body parts? Do you think living, healthy animals turn into products in a painless way? They do not. Animals are castrated, cut and tormented. Some have water sprayed up their nose to get them to walk into slaughter when they are too sick to walk up the ramp. Many slaughterhouse workers have admitted to pulling the animals apart while they are still conscious. One man had such horrible nightmares after working in a chicken processing plant that he could barely function. Chickens do not by law have to be unconscious before being rendered. How about the eggs you enjoy? Did you know that chickens have their beaks cut or burned off without anesthetic? That newborn male chicks are tossed down a chute to their death because they are not profitable to raise? Do you think if we make their killing more humane, it would be justifiable? Animals try to escape because they are frightened and suffering. They want to live as much as you do. There is no way to put a pretty face on that, no matter how many ads we see of cows grazing and chatting with one another over the fence. There is no such thing as Happy Meat.

Then there are our "pets." They should be protected, right? We do not want anything like what Michael Vick did to those poor pit bulls to happen to our dogs and cats, do we? Yet we allow animals to suffer and die in the millions in this country each year. A local humane society warns that they sometimes receive up to 100 animals per day and they have no funding but donations, which are dwindling during this recession. This means, they say, that they must euthanize (kill) these animals. Why is this acceptable to us? While a handful of animals do find pleasant homes, many more are used as guard animals and suffer abuse when their owners are in a bad mood, are left in horrible heat and freezing cold, and are not given any love, are left to starve or be killed by car at the side of the road, abandoned to a world they have no way of understanding. Many must eat commercial dog food which may include the body parts of euthanized animals, plastic styrofoam trays from grocery store refuse, road kill, all rendered in the processing plants for your beloved pets. Troubled youths torture and kill cats, puppies are buried alive, rabbits die in the heat in tiny cages. In pet stores, those cute healthy fish and small animals are only today's survivors. Check the back room for the ones that get injured or sick. Did you think veterinarians are visiting the shops? And then there are the breeders that make money off the poor puppies at the mill; the exotic pet industry that allows thousands of animals to die; the research labs that torment animals so sensitive that they develop neurotic symptoms just as any human would do in the same circumstance; the elephants that pace endlessly and develop arthritis because they have no room to move properly, all so you and your family can enjoy a leisurely stroll through the zoo, the ones used in sideshows and the circus, whom you can watch being beaten, the horses driving carriages in the middle of smog and traffic in our major cities. See the articles listed below to see what our domination of animals is doing to them - and these are just a few current examples. When we commodify living things, it is no wonder they suffer. We have denied their personhood, their feelings, their suffering, all because we want to enjoy or profit from their death and suffering. Just like Michael Vick.

I would like to suggest that if what Michael Vick did sickens you, and I hope that it does, you will look at how your own behavior and lifestyle are quietly complicit in animal suffering. I am not suggesting you are an active participant like Mr. Vick, but the result to the animals is the same. If someone barbecues the Yorkie (Man barbecues pet dog, see below), drowns bunnies in the back of a pet shop (Hurry up and die) or if a famous person like Michael Vick is seen in a very disgusting and unheroic light, we are all ready to throw the first stone. Mr. Vick reports that he has remorse, although neither in his apology nor during his 60 Minutes interview (not done by a CBS correspondent) did he ever mention sorrow for the suffering of the dogs; his remorse seems to be limited to his parents and the children he disappointed, a rather self-serving kind of remorse that relates more to his tarnished image. It is hard to imagine anyone being so callous to the feelings of dogs that they would repeatedly hang them, electrocute them, shoot them, drown them, force them to fight family pets and laugh at their torment and suffering. Most of us are not so unfeeling; I doubt that Mr. Vick has the capacity to really care about other people, other animals, or much besides his own spoiled and self-indulgent existence. I doubt that eighteen months incarcerated would be adequate sentencing for the suffering Michael Vick caused if we were people who truly cared for the lives of animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has disassociated themselves from Mr. Vick because he lied to them and said he took no direct part in the torment of the dogs. His team approached HSUS, seemingly to rehabilitate Mr. Vick's public persona rather than for any reason of conscience. But if his remorse is genuine, his new affiliation with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) may help stop the horror of dog fighting, which has been estimated to be in the range of 100,000 fighting groups across the country. If the HSUS would rescue the dogs and help them find loving homes rather than killing them, and if Mr. Vick does follow through and works with young men to stop dogfighting, to give information that would shut down thousands of these operations, then I would admit that something positive has come out of all this horror; but time will tell and I am not holding my breath. Maybe we who claim to love animals can really shift our attitudes towards thinking about their right to life rather than treating them like commodities. Maybe Mr. Vick's exposure has given us all an opportunity to look at the real culprit in this story. It is not just Michael Vick. It is all of us."

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