Who Let the Dogs Out?
Penny for your thoughts, Tony Soprano. Since episode one, season one, when the ducks flew off from your pool, you signaled your love for animals. In fact, you felt more solace in the presence of animals than with humans. Remember sitting with your thoroughbred horse Pie-O-My while she rested in her stable? The rain came down outside, soothing the rage inside you. The capper was when a goat entered, bleating. It was probably your happiest moment in the entire series. Now let’s flash forward to when you heard that Pie-O-My had died in a fire. You were more than a bit perturbed when Ralph Cifarello vaguely admitted his part in killing your favorite horse. So, of course, you beat the shit out of Ralphie, strangled him and then had Christopher dismember the corpse.
Which brings me to Michael Vick, the anti-Tony Soprano. These days, you can beat your wife, smoke craclk, bugger a sophomore cheerleader, impregnate Bridget Moynahan out of wedlock, but whatever you do, DON’T hurt an animal. It is perhaps the most serious moral infraction in America’s immorallly hyper-moral landscape. For instance, remember when Chef, Clean and Lance lit up that boat full of Vietnamese in Apocalypse Now? Chief thought they were running guns, but the girl was just hiding her puppies – only when they discovered the dogs did the waterworks start, because, you know, puppies are sad. Skip from Indochina to Japan. Tsunayoshi Tokugawa was the fifth Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He wasn’t no Richard Chamberlain, but he became known as the ‘Dog Shogun’ because he was so obsessed with dogs that he passed laws which protected dogs sometimes to the detriment of his own people. Speaking of which, remember what it was like walking down the streets of NYC in the 80′s wearing a fur coat? Man, it was hard out there on a pimp. Faster than you could say Sherwin Williams, you’d get some Minuet White thrown up on your sable.
We watch movies and TV shows with body counts galore. But god forbid a bad guy lays a finger on little Sally’s dog! Now he is evil. Which brings me back to Tony. For all of his sociopathic faults, for all his murdering and burning and looting and extorting, one redeeming quality he offered was a soft spot for animals, and somehow we were expected to take that as sign of his essential decency. We know for a fact that he would request far more than just a sitdown with Mr. Vick. There is nothing worse to a murderer like Tony than murdering an animal. I’m not saying that Vick is better or worse than Lawrence Phillips, Rae Carruth, Eugene Robinson, or Tony Soprano. All I’m saying is that he picked the wrong crime at the wrong time. He’s a felon all right, but a felon that killed Old Yeller.
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This post comes to us courtesy of Gentry Kirby (Tulane ’93), a freelance TV producer who plied his trade with SportsCentury for many years. He also produced the ill-fated Classic Now on which he had the pleasure of working with Large. Real estate and family took him down to Charlotte where he developed a taste for NASCAR, and where the warm weather has enabled him to strengthen his golf game.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Well said. But let us remeber, he’s a black athlete and no matter what people want to say, it is easier to persecute him. I often wonder if people would be calling for Payton’s head and if the government would be spending all this money on one case. And for that matter would they really push for people to turn against Payton like they did against Vick…just my take.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
1. Charlie Don’t Surf
2. Dont Hurt animals
lessons learned from no mas today.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I thought this column was well-written and accurately represented the situation in this country. It is strange that such a predominantly meat-eating society such as ours can draw such a glaring distinction between eating cows, chickens, and pigs while forgoing the execution of horses and dogs.
It’s sad that Vick could be in jail for one to five for a crime that didn’t directly hurt another human being. It’s also sad that his career could be over for a crime that didn’t directly affect the game he played (stark contrast to some athletes in the MLB). Many athletes (and many people) have done worse and received better, surely.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Furthermore, considering the well-documented and long-running evils of Greyhound racing to the dog population at large, doesn’t Uncle Sam have bigger fish to fry? And don’t we slaughter dogs for insulin? I feel for Mike Vick.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
James- there’s a big difference between racing greyhounds around a track and putting two dogs in a pit to fight to the death for your entertainment.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Free Michael Vick!
They are going to kill those dogs anyway…where is PETA now? Serious? I know, I know, people will say they are too vicious to be let out to someone in the general population…pifft. I have given many pits away that were trained to kill animals that tried to attack our Roosters and Hens…they were always good pets after.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
First of all, not enough references to Hardcastle & McCormack or most certainly Magnum PI. I think TC once organized some dogfighting out of Rick’s King Kamehameha club. Higgins would have none of it, as you may recall his fondness for Zeus & Apollo . . . but I digress.
Please all, do not try and sympathize with Mike Vick. No one stumbles into a bag of dead dogs. Recall all ye dear human lovers, that the one common thread of serial killers is that at some point they tortured animals. So it is inarguably only a matter of time before Vick goes ahead and tries to make a suit out of Warrick Dunn. (It puts the lotion on its body, or else we call a QB scramble). Or worse, until the master of the canine sweet science is locked up, I think he might try and hide hisself in a Joey Harrington suit.
So go ahead and tout yourself a human lover. Talk to me after you head out on the streets and pet a cute little homeless person. Rub their bellies, they seem to love this.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I’m not saying there’s nothing wrong with dogfighting. I’m saying the punishment (12-18 months, up to five years) doesn’t fit the crime. I don’t think Vick was killing animals for the pleasure of it like a young serial killer, but even if he was, it’s not fair to factor that into his sentence – it’s like saying a black person is statistically more likely to re-offend (a statistic that is unfortunately verifiable) and should therefore be thrown in jail longer.
Punishment aims has both reparative and punitive aspects. The former, Vick deserves, but the latter, to the extent Vick is receiving it, should be saved for more quantifiable crimes; crimes that directly hurt another person. And like Stephon says, they don’t send anyone to jail for going into the woods, shooting a deer and then skinning it and pulling out its guts. That’s what I am saying when I respond to this commentary – that because of something (possibly his race, fame, or disposition, or the popularity and power which the animal rights movement has), Vick is facing a double standard. That’s not fair, whatever the crime.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
James, nobody will take you seriously if you equate deer hunting to organizing and financing an interstate dog fighting ring.