The Philadelphia Eagles have signed Michael Vick to a one-year contract. Of course Michael Vick is well known as being centrally involved in a cruel and inhumane dog fighting enterprise.
It was activity that appalled and disgusted many. Including myself.
Vick spent a couple of years in jail, but is out of Leavenworth and now he is back in the NFL. Not surprisingly many people are outraged. That is understandable.
I'm not. I see it as an opportunity to advance the cause of animal welfare. I hope, perhaps naively so, that Vick has changed and that he can serve as a lesson in redemption and spread the message of animal welfare. Of course time will tell, but we can condemn the man and his actions forever, or we can support his redemption and make this a winning outcome for everybody.
I am an animal lover. Anybody can go back and look at my diary history and see that is the case. My wife works for a non-profit animal welfare organization. I sit on the board of a different, local, non-profit animal welfare organization. So believe me when I say dog fighting is cruelty and Michael Vick deserves no sympathy for those actions.
Believe me, it would be far easier to condemn the Eagles, the NFL and wish nothing but a lifetime of struggles and misery for Michael Vick. After all, the dogs he helped torture and kill hardly got a second thought from him. But punishment won't undo those acts. If anything it will simply put it back out of the public consciousness until the next big new story.
But Michael Vick has spent time with the Humane Society, he will be doing public service, and will be living in an environment where animals are valued. Pollyannish, possibly, but if we don't give people a chance to succeed then what's the point. Vick has done his jail time, let him now do his community time, let him do his "moral" time and let him do it in a way that is most effective.
I would say to those that would protest the Eagles or the NFL or Michael Vick in particular, instead donate your time to your local animal shelters. Give time and/or money to your local or the national Humane Society, Born Fee USA, the Animal Welfare Society, the ASPCA or another animal welfare group.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
Born Free USA United with the Animal Protection Institute
The Animal Welfare Society (AWS)
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)