Dogfighting is wrong

There have been a lot of press articles about the allegations of Michael Vick’s association with a dogfighting ring. Some people believe that Vick is being unduly punished for a crime because of his high profile. Some of these same people, including the head of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP (see article here) also feel that dogfighting is not a crime worthy of strict punishment (“strict” to them must be the roughly one year of jail time Vick will serve plus whatever suspension/ban he receives from the NFL).

I cannot understand this argument. I was sickened by the details of the torture perpetrated against the animals in Bad Newz Kennels. It is wrong to treat any animals as these ones were treated. At the same time, I believe that the crime is worse because the animals involved were dogs. Dogfighting is not similar to other animal-related sport, such as hunting, as the gentleman in the referenced article suggest. I am not a hunter and would never hunt myself, but I do not campaign against hunting and I do not feel that there is a comparison between dogfighting and hunting. Before I really begin to rant, I should note that all that follows is my subjective opinion and clearly influenced by my very strong affection for my own dog.

Anyone who owns a dog or who has ever owned a dog will understand that there is a special relationship between man and dog. Not only is it special and close, but it is unique and not shared between any other animal and mankind. The reason for this is found in the nature of dogs. Dogs, even abused ones, are bound to their masters by trust and companionship. Domestic dogs and most wild dogs are not solitary animals; they crave companionship. Dogs are also by nature trusting companions. My dog believes that whatever I do to him or with him is safe. Granted, he may not like all the things I do to him (bath time and grooming are still not his favorite), but I believe that he understands that I would never deliberately put him in harm’s way. These are part of a dog’s nature. Even if a dog has a cruel master, this overpowering sense of trust and desire for companionship force the dog to remain.

I had a friend in Moscow that was neighbors with a family with a dog. This family got another, larger dog and found that it did not have room for the first. So, they kicked it out of there apartment in the middle of winter. What did the dog do? It stayed. It slept outside the door to family’s apartment even though they did not feed it or pay it the least attention. There are countless other stories like this about dogs that illustrate my point: dogs are bound by a tremendously strong bond to their master and cannot overcome this even faced with their own death.

This is why dogfighting is to my mind a particularly evil form of animal cruelty. All cruelty to animals is wrong, but taking advantage of an animal that cannot remove itself from a harmful situation because of its nature and violating this unique bond of trust goes beyond regular cruelty. The dogs at Bad Newz Kennels could not extract themselves from this dogfighting ring, as large and ferocious as they were. Their masters wanted them to fight and to kill, and so they did. When their bodies could not take it anymore, they were destroyed by the same people they were trying so desperately to please. All this for sport and money. Vick and his cohorts displayed more than poor judgment, which many people feel is Vick’s only mistake. The acts of these men against animals bound to them are a clear demonstration of man’s practically unlimited capacity for evil. Faced with this, the question of whether or not Michael Vick will ever play football again seems to me insignificant.