Let’s Not Forget About the Kids that Michael Vick Has Un-Inspired

Posted on January 31, 2008
Filed Under Michael Vick's Impact on Youth | Leave a Comment

Over the last few weeks, we have covered a lot more of Michael Vick’s conviction and likely next steps or mis-steps.  We  have also covered a good deal about the dogs.  Its been a few months since we talked about all the kids, high school students and athletes, even the college players that are getting some really bad messages from Michael Vick.

So I wanted to take a moment to throw out the question, especially to any of you that have kids preparing to go into high school sports or that are in high school sports, What do you think Michael Vick’s Actions say to kids?

Promote the Kids - Promote the High Schools

I came across a great site called Takkle that seems to be sponsored in part by Sports Illustrated.  Its a social network that enables high school athletes to come together and learn from each other.  I wonder if this might actually be part of the solution to the problem that Michael Vick and other bad example public figures create.

Click Here

Maybe kids will work through these issues just fine if they emphasis is not placed on a twenty something athlete that makes a quarter of a billion dollars, but instead places the emphasis on the kids themselves.  I suspect that it should be about the kids emulating Michael Vick at all no matter how many Nike dollars push it. I think that maybe kids will start to come together to support and promote each other.  I’d rather see those hundreds of millions of endorsement dollars go to high schools than to a professional athlete that uses the money to buy dogs for torturing and killing any day.

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Feeding Rescued Dogs to People - Bad Idea - Already Happening?

Posted on January 31, 2008
Filed Under Pets and Animals | 1 Comment

I have received a ton of emails from people asking why I do not make a statement about the recently re-exposed practices of the beef industry after it came to light that many of the cows are literally being tortured.  They are not being tortured as George Bush would define torture, because the cows like some accused terrorists are being water boarded.

Do they have intelligence that is essential to protecting national security?  Nope, they are just cows and they won’t give up names, places or dates regardless of how much you torture them.

First, let me say (again) I am not a member of PETA.  I am not a vegetarian either (hot dogs for lunch and chicken for supper).  I love a good steak, but don’t eat hamburgers very often as they give me indigestion. 

After you finish this story, they may give you indigestion too.

Suggestion to feed unwanted dogs and cats in animal shelters to the poor and hungry

I read an article this evening suggesting that the United States should consider feeding cats and dogs to people that are hungry, starving or too poor to eat regularly.  A number of facts about the number of homeless and hungry were cited along with some estimates of the unwanted animal population that is put to death each year.

The same goes for cats and dogs. The problem of unwanted cats and dogs isn’t going away. Why not turn those millions of unwanted pets into some tasty snacks for people who would otherwise go hungry?

Title -  Please don’t hurt me!

The suggestion is a bit rhetorical, but it also points out the fact that many people do not realize that they are already eating euthanized cats and dogs every day!

You may have eaten someone’s unwanted pet this evening for supper.  I may have unknowingly eaten a stray cat for lunch.

Sometimes when you have your pet put to sleep, you can take the pet home and bury it and sometimes you can pay a hundred dollars to have the pet incinerated.  Many times however shelters and other facilities sell the dead carcasses of these animals to Rendering Plants that have the sole and legal purpose of recycling the dead animals into

Cows and Chickens Eat Dead Dogs and Cats too

rendering-plant-animals These products are all used as animal feed.  That recycled meat is sold to pet food manufacturers and to poultry and beef farms where the ground up cats and dogs and road kill and left over parts of other cows and chickens are fed to chickens and cows.  When I was a kid growing up in Illinois, people used to even trap raccoons and possums.  They would sell the animal whole.  The pelts were worth so much and the meat was sold to a rendering plant outside of Peoria that sold the products to Purina.

That’s right, rendering plants might even sell your pet dogs carcass to be made into pet food.

The Real Problem with this Process is the Toxic Waste

Now let’s be real for a second.  Human kind has included carnivores and omnivores for thousands of years.  Vegetarians are a definite minority in our population and in our history.  The primary issue with this process (as was exposed last year when thousands of pets died as a result of poisoned pet food) is that toxic wastes are not removed from the rendered meat.

GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out - Toxic Deceased Pet In Toxic Recycled Meat Out

 

The following menu of unwanted ingredients often accompany with dead animals and other raw material:

  • Pesticides via poisoned livestock

  • Euthanasia drugs that were given to pets

  • Some dead animals have flea collars containing organophosphate insecticides

  • Fish oil laced with bootleg DDT

  • Insecticide Dursban in the form of cattle insecticide patch

  • Other chemicals leaked from antibiotics in livestock

  • Heavy metals from pet ID tag, surgical pins and needles

  • Plastic from:

    • Styrofoam trays from packed unsold supermarket meats, chicken and fish

    • Cattle ID tags

    • Plastic insecticide patches

    • Green plastic bags containing dead pets from veterinarians

    Source

 

Where is the Media on This Fiasco?  Covering Michael Vick too much

rendering-plant-meat-cutting-screwsSo you may ask the question why isn’t the media covering this issue?  The cynics in the crowd that come to this website will respond that they are too busy covering Michael Vick. 

The reality is that they are covering this issue, and on a different site designed for the right purpose so am I.  I present this here just to holistically cover it from the Michael Vick perspective, but you can see this coverage in a great USA Today articles titled Consumers may have a beef with cattle feed.

There are many more articles like that out there too.

My view on the situation

As I see it, I and many people around the world are not going to completely stop eating meat anytime soon.  The industry needs to be cleaned up so that toxic wastes can be removed from the system and we can work to insure the safety of both human food as well as the safety of pet food and the food fed to the animals we eat.

Am I comfortable with the thought that when I slice into a steak, I might be eating something one meal removed from someone’s pet or a rotted deer on the road or a lame cow fed back to the herd.  No, I am not.  I didn’t grow up on a farm and I am not yet conditioned to just accept that.  However, I do understand that we do exist within an ecosystem and a food chain and that this is not terribly unreasonable.  The food, the feed, the pet food, it all has to come from somewhere.  We cannot create miles of pet cemeteries.  We can not burn up every animal that we put to death and pollute the air either or exhaust a bunch of fuel or electricity to do it.

This is an organic process.  It needs to be cleaned up significantly but it is a real process. 

I do feel that we can find someway to grow and raise all the animals involved in a way that does not torture the animals.  We can eat and exist without being sadists.  Even though our pet cats may play with a mouse and torment it, we humans can do a little better.  When the day comes that someone invents some mush or gruel or a pill that feeds us more efficiently and tastes better and we do not have engage in this practice, I may just embrace it.  However, I am not going to agonize over one of the necessities of life, like a vampire character in an Ann Rice novel fretting over having to kill to survive.

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Dog’s Reality Show Could be Biggest Obstacle for Vick’s Return to the NFL

Posted on January 29, 2008
Filed Under Minor Developments | 2 Comments

 dogs National Geographic is going to feature 4 of Vick’s victimized dogs in a reality show.  The show will cover the dogs that are the toughest cases, and that could spell trouble for Michael Vick’s career ambitions if they point to the NFL.

The 22 animals now reside at Dogtown, the Best Friends animal sanctuary in Utah.

The series will focus on four of the toughest cases as the experts at Dogtown try to “resocialize these seriously aggressive pit bulls.”

“Dogtown” is in production on episodes set to premiere in the summer.

Series to chronicle retraining days for Vick’s dogs

Conceivably, if America is introduced to these dogs and becomes emotionally attached the memory of Michael Vick’s cruelty to his own pets might keep sentiments high enough to prevent his return to the NFL.  That sentiment could crest in a wave of unpopularity for Michael Vick if the dogs are unable to be rehabilitated.

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Leaving Prison Today

Posted on January 26, 2008
Filed Under Minor Developments | Leave a Comment

oscar-allen-sold-dogs-to-vick One of the men involved in the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal got out of prison.  He cooperated with investigators and did not physically harm any of the dogs, however his treatment has generated claims of preferential treatment from many Vick defenders.

Oscar  Allen sold dogs to Michael Vick and he is white.  He cut a plea deal early on and received a sentence much shorter than any of the other defendants who were all African American, but admitted to harming or killing dogs.

A man who sold a female pit bull to Michael
Vick’s dogfighting operation and attended some of the fights
escaped prison time today because he cooperated with investigators
and did NOT physically harm any of the dogs.

A Man Involved in the Michael Vick Dogfighting Scandal Escapes Prison Time

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Its Because Its Illegal Stupid

Posted on January 15, 2008
Filed Under Minor Developments | 1 Comment

Years back the first George Bush was accused of not getting it, when it came time for the 1992 election.  Chants of Its the economy dummy or its the economy stupid were prevalent in social circles in an era when the internet had not yet reached a boiling point.

Today, I came across an interesting article that points out that when it comes to Michael Vick and dog fighting or baseball players and HGH or even other entertainers and drugs, its not about the personal attack of the government against African Americans or even against celebrities in general. 

There are many disparities in prosecution of African Americans and other minorities.  I have not diminishing that certain reality. 

However, the real issue in the situations I cited above is that these people are engaged in ILLEGAL activity.  The article on 103.9 WDKX RADIO ROCHESTER NY points out that it doesn’t matter if these are important or unimportant crimes, they are still crimes and the government takes what it can get when it comes to prosecutions.  So if an imbecilic NFL superstar wants to be stupid enough to run an illegal gambling and dog fighting ring in his own back yard with the evidence all over the place, then you can’t really attack the government for doing its job.

In fact, last spring most people were attacking the Virginia government for not doing its job, and that’s what triggered the Feds to step in.  They saw an obvious miscarriage of justice and stepped up to do something about it.

If You Do Not Like the Law, Do Something to Change It

So as the primaries continue to fight through a number of key states, there is one state that promises to identify some of the battle lines between gender, race, rich and poor and maybe a few other things, South Carolina.  South Carolina compared to the rest of the country has a very poor population.  It is expected that African American women will be largely responsible for picking the Democratic winner in South Carolina and for one of the first times in decades, maybe a hundred years, this group of people that have faced more inequality than almost any other group beside possibly Native Americans, who were just slaughtered wholesale by guns, disease and more, never having much of an opportunity to even be persecuted or treated inequitably because they were killed off in a massive genocide, but I digress.  This group of African American women finally has a key opportunity to make a difference for themselves and for the country.

The important thing for them to consider is who will truly change the status quo.  I mention the word change not because Barack Obama uses the word to evoke the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, but because change is definitely needed in very large doses.  The system is not only broken, its not only unfair, but it is crashing and if we do not change it, we will all be buried in the rubble.

So I say to all the people that feel that Michael Vick was treated unfairly, do something to change the system.  If you feel that Michael Vick should not be in jail for illegal gambling and dog fighting, then start working to make those activities legal.  Stand up for your convictions and do something to change the system.  If you think that baseball players should not be persecuted for HGH, then start calling your congressman and asking them to legalize HGH.  If you think that people should be allowed to smoke marijuana or crack or shoot heroin or sleep with little children in Neverland then do something to make it legal.  Take a stand. 

I may not agree with your stand, but I will respect you for standing up for yourself and fighting for what you believe in.  We currently have a terrible President that can barely wake up in the morning without harming our country, the Constitution or the citizens of the US or the world for that matter.  We have this President because too few people stood up for what they believed in back in 1999 or 2003.  Now is the time to do something.

If you want to know who I am voting for in the upcoming election, I haven’t got a clue yet.  I will not vote for Hillary as I think she is corrupt.  I will not vote for Huckabee nor Romney as I think they are too religious and in the former case a closet fascist.  I would vote for Obama if Oprah were his running mate, but he can’t pick a VP before he locks up the nomination. 

I’m serious about Oprah, I think she should be President.  She’s a good communicator, very smart, and has a great track record of getting things done, making change and being successful.

I might also possibly vote for Edwards, McCain, Ron Paul, or just about any independent that enters the race.

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Michael Vick may be compelled to Testify Against his Brother Marcus

Posted on January 12, 2008
Filed Under Minor Developments | 1 Comment

Click Here

A 17 year old girl has a smart attorney that wants to depose Michael Vick to seek testimony that would prove that Marcus Vick (Michael’s brother) had sex with the 17 year old girl when she was 15.  Marcus Vick has been previously convicted of contributing to the delinquency of minors, by giving under aged girls alcohol and encouraging them to strip. 

Prior to the 2004 collegiate season, Vick was arrested and ultimately convicted for providing alcohol to three underage girls who “claimed” to be college students. This is the account listed in paragraph 3 of the first section. In a subsequent incident, Vick was charged with reckless driving and possession of marijuana. He was suspended from the university for the fall semester of 2004. ~ Wikipedia

marcus-vick-mug-shot-suffolk-county Marcus Vick had several more encounters with the law and with controversy on the field, which ultimately seemed to prevent his NFL career from ever beginning despite some potential physical ability. (Marcus Vick Mug shot - Left)

The accuser in this case claims to be one of the girls given alcohol and claims that later that night Marcus and herself had sex.

This is all taking place in Florida, Michael Vick’s new home state where he purchased a new condominium to protect his assets from bankruptcy. Marcus Vick had played with the dolphins but was cut from the team.

The Canadian Press: Lawyer wants to depose Michael Vick in lawsuit against Marcus Vick

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Was Michael Vick Smart to Smoke a Joint before heading to the Joint?

Posted on January 7, 2008
Filed Under Vick Getting Out | 2 Comments

Michael Vick may be out of federal prison by next Christmas.  He apparently has just applied and possibly been accepted to an in prison drug rehabilitation program at Ft Leavenworth in a minimum security prison.  The rehab program is 12 months and could see Vick released early (at the conclusion of the program).  It might just be possible that smoking the joint that made him test positive for marijuana in September was the smartest legal maneuver he made to insure that he would be out of jail within 1 year.

If so, that upcoming Virginia trial will be very important if he wants to get out of jail and not serve a back to back sentence in state prison that might prevent him from only missing the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

read more at Yahoo Sports Vick may get out of jail early

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