ASPCA Reasons for Not Partnering with Michael Vick
August 21st, 2009
Ed Sayres, the President and CEO of the ASPCA described in detail why he and the ASPCA specifically chose NOT to partner nor work with Michael Vick, despite requests from Vick and his entourage. We would highly encourage reading this article in full, but wanted to share some of the key excerpts. Our effort, site and campaign are also NOT partnered with the ASPCA, we have not contacted them and vice versa, but we DO respect their decision not to help promote the criminal in this particular case.
Several months ago, Mr. Vick’s PR representatives approached the ASPCA to help educate America about the heinous act of dog fighting following his release from prison. We were the first animal welfare organization given the opportunity to work with Mr. Vick but immediately turned him down due to the unique knowledge we had of his indescribable and barbaric acts of animal cruelty where he and his associates savagely electrocuted and beat dogs to death after they lost their brutal fights.
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The ASPCA’s general consultation and our specific role in processing the forensic evidence in this case were key elements that resulted in Mr. Vick and the three other defendants all pleading guilty to felony crimes.
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the ASPCA wants to make clear why this organization chose not to partner with him in his supposed rehabilitation efforts. We are simply not convinced that Mr. Vick has demonstrated compassion toward animals as living beings or the necessary remorse for his criminal actions against them.
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CBS did a grave disservice to the animal welfare community by failing to show the ugly truth of Mr. Vick’s actions and the horrors of dog fighting and animal cruelty in this country. The continued attention paid to Mr. Vick is only reinforcing that criminal behavior does not destroy fame and fortune.
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Although Mr. Vick has served his time and is now entitled to employment, the ASPCA was strongly against him being able to immediately re-join the NFL, to play alongside highly paid elite athletes who are looked upon as our heroes and role models.
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The ASPCA believes in second chances — in redemption — but that second chance has to be earned through contrition, conversion to the cause of animal welfare and finally, through hard work. Mr. Vick has only now begun his journey toward a second chance.
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Will Mr. Vick have learned something — and taken the opportunity he has been granted to impart to his legion of fans the importance of compassion toward animals? Certainly, only time will offer us an answer — but we will be watching.
More on similar topics:
- Violence Begets Violence – Justice for Dog Set on Fire People say that Michael Vick’s actions didn’t cause any harm to other people sometimes. Well that’s a bunch of crap. Not only was one of...
39 Responses to “ASPCA Reasons for Not Partnering with Michael Vick”
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So rahter than use Mik Vick’s celebrity to bring and end to cruelty and the heinous sport of dog fighting the ASPCA would rather it continue so to not work with him.
Awesome. So rather than swallowing hard and doing something they do not like for the greater good for those they say they want to protect, they will allow it to continue knowing that the ASPCA is NOT doing all it could to stop it.
This is proof that this is all fluff, if they really cared they would erradicate it by any means necessary, but that is not what it is about. It is about vilifying and making villians, not about helping dogs.
shame on you ASPCA, and any of you who have donated money, you should ask for a refund.
I was at an HSUS event when they made the announcement at a fundraiser that they were giving Vick a chance. Three people clapped.
DMX has already done this making a fool of everyone. to them it’s just more coping pleas. Just using people with no regard for their feelings. It’s street. It’s hood. and the weak people that believe them are suckas. See kindness is a weakness in their world.
You obviously are oblivious to the concerns that anyone who gets involved with Michael Vick would have. He IS NOT remorseful or sorry for what he did. He just had the unfortunate luck to get caught and what better way to back into the NFL and make $$$$ than to say you are “sorry.” I applaud the ASPCA for not falling for his load of bull. If the NFL and Philadelphia Eagles had the same fortitude as the ASPCA, Michael Vick would be working at some menial job and not making the kind of money neither you nor I will ever see in our lifetime.
It’s about teaching people that there are consequences for their actions. To say you’ve found religion and seen the light about dog-fighting in order to get back your multi-million dollar job isn’t enough. The Humane Society and Tony Dungy are enabling this farce and I am delighted the ASPCA refused to do so
Michael Vick eradicate animal abuse. You are certainly a simple-minded idiot. That makes as much sense as having OJ Simpson as the spokesperson against domestic violence.
Vick’s voice doesn’t make animal abuse go away. It glorifies a sociopath. It fames a felon.
It’s not just “dog fighting.” It’s the fact that Vick enjoyed watching the dogs tear one another to pieces. PETS were used as bait. You know that ugly little chihuahua that you love to hold on your lap while watching the National Felon’s League football games? Yeah, that one. Vick would toss his bony little ass in the ring and revel when one of his pits would rips ligaments from his tiny body and watch his eyeballs pop from his little head. Yippeee!!! What twisted fun that is….
It’s not just “dog fighting.” It’s the fact that Vick viciously and without conscience beat, tortured, drowned and electrocuted his own fighting dogs who did not perform to his standards.
Why don’t you buy a Vick jersey for your kid? Then grab your son’s beloved dog and beat the hell out of it. Go on, you chicken shit bastard. Bash it’s head on the ground until the skull pops and gray matter and blood spatter that jersey?
It’s not just “dog fighting.” It’s the fact that Vick had the tiny tiny balls to attach jumper cables to his dog’s ears and toss it into the pool. ZZZZZZZZTTTTTT…damn, don’t you know the smell from that would make your son run to the Eagle’s concession stand for a hot dog?
Teach your son well. Make sure he knows that money is the bottom line, and that unless he himself is loaded (which he’ll never be), he’ll never ever make a decent contributing citizen in society. He won’t be shit…just like his daddy who fights so hard with his flimsy statements against those who would like to see a better moral society in our world.
I don’t donate my hard earned dollars to anyone. I put my money where my mouth is. I rescue animals from shitty situations. Like your pet would be in….or Vick’s…or Ed Faron’s Wildside pups. I don’t fight anyone who is striving to make our world a better place in which to live.
all those parapgraphs and yet you wrote nothing.
Your act is tired.
Your act never gets old Rich, but we do appreciate your help and support. You are becoming a great contributor here on SackVick.net.
No greater good is served by working with a villain like Michael Vick. I think that is the root of our disagreement.
If a woman is raped, you can’t expect her to go work with the rapist to speak out against rape.
If a young boy is molested by a priest, you can’t expect him to go work with that priest to counsel other priests not to molest other boys.
In this case, we’re not just talking about a person or a teenager that went to a dog fight once, we are talking about the king pin that organized the activity for hundreds of people, that put up money for the events, that killed and tortured dogs with his own hands.
I think you are confusing the potential for reforming the system by comparing the potential results that can be achieved when victimless crime felons reform and tell their stories versus this situation where there most definitely were victims of Michael Vick’s crimes both human and canine.
Let’s say a crack addict finally becomes sober for some lengthy period of time, and goes around to high schools to talk about the evils of smoking crack. In this situation the crack addict may be the only one harmed by their own crimes.
In Michael Vick’s case there were real victims, so giving him a voice to speak about his crimes continues to serve an injustice on the victims of his crimes from the perspective of the people that saved his dogs, from other dog owners fighting to stop dog fighting, to Marie Melton, whose brother Bud was murdered after he provided written testimony against Michael Vick.(unsolved crime in NC still)
Maybe to bring the analogy even closer, lets say you have a gang banger, who has made a fortune selling drugs and killing people as part of his gang activities. If he goes to prison after being caught red handed and confessing to his crimes, then later gets out, and receives a great big contract for $6.8 million from the Gang he used to be a member of, but can no longer engage in gang banger crimes. It would be a travesty of justice if he then took that money, even a part of it, and spent it to go around and talk people out of being members of a gang.
He would be a big fat hypocrite because he’s still benefiting from his former work as a gang banger.
(the analogy isn’t rock solid) which is why its easier to compare Michael Vick to Hitler.
Most people wouldn’t let Hitler go and counsel people about killing jewish people no matter what, because the crimes Hitler committed were so terrible, that to use his voice and notoriety while he financially benefits from that same voice and notoriety is almost a crime itself.
Which is why we don’t want to see Michael Vick in the NFL, he’s continuing to benefit financially from his notoriety. If he can go do some type of work that doesn’t leverage his notoriety which is tied to his criminal behavior, great more power to him. Let him be as successful as he can be.
But as long as he leverages his criminal notoriety, then it is as if he’s killing another dozen dogs right now.
HITLER?? That’s a bit extreme. He killed and tortured HUMANS! I love animals and hate what MV did. HOWEVER . . balance is needed. I think every woman that has been abused or raped by some ball player should be HIGHLY offended by all the concern being showed for dogs! When they start banning wife beaters and men who have sex with underage girls from the NFL, NBA etc, then we can talk. This just shows how little value women have in society. A woman is raped every 15 seconds and no one really cares! But hurt a dog and you’re compared to Hitler!!
Think about this . .I’m sure MV could get some heat off of himself and rat out some ‘goody-two-shoes’ who were present at those fights too but he hasn’t. He may be the only one who got caught but not the only one who is GUILTY!!
Yeah Michael Vick, A Real stand up criminal protector isn’t he?
All of those drug dealers, dog fighters, illegal gamblers etc are sleeping easy knowing that Michael Vick has their back.
For the record we want to get all the wife beaters and other violent felons out of the national felons league too.
Finally, Hitler by many accounts started off by killing animals for fun, he didn’t work his way up to the super bad stuff until he was a lot older. Lets hope Michael Vick doesn’t have the opportunity to realize his own evil potential.
michael vick the next hitler? yea your definately meantally retarded i am sure of that now.
I don’t think he will be the next hitler because some of us aren’t that gullible anymore.
If you don’t stand up and stop the psycho nut jobs that like to kill things for fun, you might just find yourself in a country run by one of those psycho nut jobs.
im pretty sure america still kills things for fun its called hunting.
Some people hunt simply for fun, for the sport of killing animals.
Pretty stupid in general and I’m not defending it.
Most hunters however, hunt for food.
Michael Vick as far as any thing I’ve read did not hunt dogs for food. He simply killed them to watch them suffer and die. Witnesses even described Michael Vick throwing household pets into rings with his dogs trained to fight just to see them get torn apart.
You’ve accused me of being retarded. In retort, I’d ask you to describe how hunting animals for food is the same thing as killing a dog with your bare hands just to watch it suffer and die?
lets call this the bonus round!
actually many hunt for fun if you didn’t know. I don’t defend what michael vick just if you didn’t know. I love animals i brought my dog in who was a stray and have loved him since. In fact he got injured when he fell in the house and doctors thought he would never walk again. I spent months rehabing my dog and miracely is walking to this day. So my problem with you people is not anything that deals with dogs or animals its just what does michael vick playing football have to with that. I’m pretty sure if the man can’t get a drink without getting caught he can’t come even close to killing a dog. But back to your question many people go out kill all sorts of animals for fun. For some reason only domesticated animals are bad to kill but any other wild animals is ok? A cause stopping hunting for fun is one i would agree on this not so much.
I know a lot of hunters, but I don’t know many that hunt just for fun, (ergo hunt something, kill it and throw it away or something).
The issue with Vick in the NFL is that he used fan money to go out and kill dogs. All of the money he earned came from fans, either through the NFL or through sponsors. That means people like you and me put the money in Vick’s pockets so that he could go out and build a dog fighting ring, buy dogs to train and fight, pay off drug dealers when he lost bets, and in general do some sick things.
I don’t want to support a person like that, hence the site.
I didn’t want to support Vick back in 2007 when he almost got away with it (before his sponsors bailed) and I don’t want to support him in the NFL now.
We may disagree and that’s fine. I’m not looking to make a convert out of anyone through my words directly. For this I generally find that most people have their minds made up one way or the other. I simply want to help people take action where they are comfortable.
PS I’ve added an editing capability to the site for comments. There is about a 2 minute window after a comment is created whereby you can edit it. That windows closes if someone else leaves a comment before you hit edit.
OH, you wanna get the wife beaters out too! How about getting them out FIRST!! It’s called prioritizing!! Apparently, women aren’t at the top of the list.
Though I don’t believe this is primarily a race issue, I can’t help but wonder if all this fuss would have been made if Peyton Manning were involved instead of MV!! Some of us would be outraged either way, but the general public . . hmm not so sure.
By the way, I wasn’t commending or condemning MV for not revealing other participants. I’m just saying other people in his position would have. Either way he is screwed. If he names others, he’s a snitch and no one in the NFL would really want him around. (not for moral reasons but because they don’t want to caught)He didn’t snitch so he’s a criminal protector. Lose/lose situation.
Its not called prioritizing its called not putting up with any violent felons in the NFL anymore. Get them all out now.
There’s no place for violent felons in the nfl
I can guarantee you that if Peyton Manning or any other NFL player whatever his race tortured and killed dogs that the reaction from at least 99 percent of those opposed to that person’s return to the NFL would be identical. However I doubt if some of Vick’s supporters would feel the same way
Bravo to the ASPCA! This exemplifies why many dog lovers have chosen to switch their national charitable giving from the HSUS to their organization. Ever since I read the article in Sports Illustrated about how the HSUS called for the dogs “rescued” from Vick to be euthanized, I have no time or money for that group
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/12/22/vick.dogs/index.html
Man you guys have ruined my life. I’m a 13 year old who loves football but my parents are doing this NFL boycott because of Vick and I can’t watch it anymore. All the kids at my school make fun of me because my parents are boycotting the NFL. Even the teachers and my neighbors make fun of my family. My parents love this website. Now I can never watch the NFL again. Thanks alot you losers.
Kudos to the ASPCA for rejecting the serial dog killer aka Michael Vick. I have to generally support the HSUS also since they have been very active in trying to stop dog fighting.
The HSUS has an excellent record in trying to stop dogfights and in fact, offers a reward for information about dog fighters which I think, leads to their arrest and/or conviction.
Vicks Public relation people are probably telling him to do this.
The HSUS were the only organization to help me expose a very cruel animal auction in NJ.
Seems to me you have some very good parents. You should respect that they stand up for what they believe in and not listen to other people, if you do the same your life will turn out o.k. Also, if you are only 13 and can articulate your thoughts so clearly and punctuate your sentences that good, then you are probably too good to worry about the N.F.L. anyway.
Carl!,
I’m so glad you wrote. First of all, congrads to your parents for drawing boundaries. I know you don’t know what that means but you will one day. Second of all, NFL isn’t a necessary nutrient. You can and will live without it. Get your parents back by studying so you can get out on your own even sooner. Hee-hee.
Watch college football or go to the gym, play soccer! you are an American with choices.Stop whining and live!
PS. There will be no football at my house either.
We didn’t ruin your life, Rich. You ruined your own life.
what kind of loser pretends to be someone’s life lol pretty pathetic
i meant wife stupid lack of editing from a cheap website
I completely agree. Definitely a cheap website. No frills here, but as soon as I get some spare time, I’ll figure out how to add in an editing option for everyone.
Its the little things in life.
Who’s pretending? Oh wait…you really are Tom Arnold.
yes my name is tom arnold. Are you that stupid that you think im the famous tom arnold? lol im not suprised though you guys think your fighting for a “cause”…idiots.
His name is Carl dopey.
Perhaps we will see some “Field-Justice” by the visiting Defense!
Forget?…NEVER! Sack Vick!! HARD!!!
I think this website needs to end…you people only look at things by the color of someone’s skin. If he was white…it would be find!!!
That’s all I have to say…and i’m of mixed race!
This is not a black and white issue, dogs are color blind and so am I and millions of other dog lovers of all races when it comes to atrocities like Michael Vick committed
When Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball for gambling, I didn’t hear people say it was because he’s white.
Stop trying to make this a race issue.
You’d imply that we all hate and despise, Adolf Hitler because he was a German???
Mass murderers like VICK are judged by their deeds, not their race or religion!
FORGIVE?…NEVER! SACK VICK!
Doll you are not alone in being of mixed race. Having run this website for over 2 years and after reading every single comment, I have so far formed the opinion that there are different opinions on Michael Vick in particular.
Before the dog fighting came to light, many people felt that Michael Vick, like Michael Jackson and Barack Obama had transcended race.
In the last year or so, I’ve noted that many people tend to fall into a couple camps now that do seem to break a little bit along some racial lines.
In general, everyone no matter what their race is seems to agree that Michael Vick is one sick and twisted man, and EVERYONE agrees that for six years he was a complete fool for spending money on dog fighting. They feel is utterly stupid actions (whether perceived bad or evil or not) cost him hundreds of millions of dollars, so no matter what else, most people think he must be one of the biggest screw ups in sports history.
That seems to be the common ground.
Things start to diverge a bit around the notion of second chances.
The US has a prison population of over 2 million people and that number is disproportionately African American. Personally, I think that is a travesty and a major injustice for many reasons and causes.
The thing is as it relates to Michael Vick, many people that know of this racial injustice in our prison society feel that for many of the African Americans that get out of prison, they need a second chance. Many of them are pulled into a situations that they are just not equipped to deal with often because they are not yet adults yet, they have been staving off gang activities even while they were in school most of their lives, and for far too many they just can’t escape and get dragged into the mix and end up in prison, where some of them finally get a chance to grow up (albeit in a terrible environment).
Once armed with adulthood and some extremely hard life lessons, they are equipped a bit more to start over in life, but now they come out of prison with the stigma of being an ex-felon which in a large number of companies is a status that prevents a person from getting a job.
This social economic shunning of these people often pushes them back into environments and social groups where they end up doing some of the same things that put them in prison in the first place.
So for a lot of good reasons, people want these ex-felons to get more of a second chance at a job so that they can rebuild their lives. (I’m ignoring the fact that we are in a recession with most of the country experiencing 10% unemployment and the African American communities in many areas experiencing 20% unemployment, there are lots and lots of items that I just can’t cover here in a reply).
So with all of that in mind, a few people (if you read all of these comments here, it truly is not a lot of people) feel that since Michael Vick is African American and since he just got out of prison, he too should get a second chance and they are pushing/fighting for him to get that second chance hoping that it will open the door for all of those other felons to get a second chance.
Then there is the faction on the other side that sees that in Michael Vick’s case, he was made his decisions while he was an adult, he had received the golden ticket first in the form of a scholarship and then into the NFL. He had contracts for over $250 million dollars and once he had those contracts in hand (literally a few days later) he set up his dog fighting gambling ring and started to work at killing dogs for fun (instead of say spending some time and energy and money trying to help African Americans getting out of prison to find work or helping troubled teens in the African American community from falling into a life that would put them in prison, Michael Vick actually sponsored them to engage in illegal activities including dogfighting, gambling and did that with a lot of drug dealers (cocaine dealers documented, probably others as well)).
Michael Vick was able to do so many evil things against dogs and against African American teenagers using NFL money and his position in the NFL. We therefore do not want to see him regain the power in the NFL, the influence through the NFL and the influence through NFL money (money in the NFL comes from us fans by the way). We don’t want to see him regain the tools that he used to harm so many people hence our stance to prevent him playing in the NFL , ever.
From my perspective, those people that are trying to let him play in the NFL are the people that are hurting African Americans. Michael Vick has not been good for African American youths in particular. He has not worked to help the African American community. He has ridden on the coat tails of real African American leaders like Al Sharpton when it suited his PR needs. (Disclaimer- I think Al Sharpton is a great leader, and frankly would have liked to see him as President instead of Barack Obama. Obama is a better speaker, but I think Sharpton tells it like it is and doesn’t pander to people, so I trust him more.)
So to sum it up, it seems to come down between people that think Michael Vick deserves a second chance because he is African American and too few African American felons get second chances, and those of us that think that Michael Vick is almost poisonous for African Americans and has done nothing but harm the community, exhaust its good will, and provided nothing in return but bad examples.
I don’t care if the piece of shit is pink. It’s still wrong. Ed Faron is white. He was wrong, too. Google that.
Yes bravo to the ASPCA. My donations will be going to them. In this area, they are THE frontline for animal control and care and do lots of the dirty work. Good for them all the more for not partnering with Vick.
Doll: Bullhockey. If Vick was white we’d feel the same. Moral depravity comes in many daring oolors! And ongrats on being of mixed race but that doesn’t entitle you via special insight to paint “you people” as racists.
I’m glad you have no more to say.
HSUS is using Vick for the publicity, to recruit new members and raise a lot of cash, quickly. Michael Vick gives them a chance to market as their own, an urban youth anti-dogfighting program created by Tio Hardiman of Ceasefire Chicago. HSUS helped fund some of his work and then put their name on the whole thing. Trying to convince America that Michael Vick can be a powerful force for animal welfare is just the latest in a series of Pacellian blunders and scams. It is already backfiring. Nice piece, ASPCA.