The star football player, Michael Vick, who had a 10 year $130 million contract with the NFL and was the highest-paid NFL player by 2006 decided to be ignorant and throw all of that away because of dog fighting. If I was the best football player in the NFL and making millions of dollars I would not be doing some stupid dog fighting.
Michael Vick and three other of his people, Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor started a dogfighting business called “Bad Newz Kennels” at a property Vick purchased in Virginia. They bought dogs from all over and brought them back to the property in Virginia. The men would test the dogs in fights and if they did not perform up to their standards, it was a farewell to them. The way they would kill them included hanging, drowning and slamming the dogs body to the ground. Just hearing that makes me sick to my stomach. When I see a dog in a car it upsets me but hearing that these men would do this intentionally and get joy out of it boggles my mind.
According to a witness they would fight their trained Pit Bulls with pet dogs and “thought it was funny to watch the Pit Bull dogs kill or injure the other dogs.”
Many fights were hosted at the Virginia property and they would happen either late at night or early in the morning. There would be gambling bets on the dogs in the thousands of dollars. There was no emotion with these dogs they were workers for the men and if they did not perform they would either die trying or die because they didn’t win.
The investigation started because of Vick’s cousin who put Vick’s address down when getting arrested. While authorities were searching the property they obtained a warrant to search the property because of animal cruelty. When they did their search they found 54 dogs which were mostly Pitbulls, blood, equipment for training the dogs, documents of paperwork for fighting dogs, and drugs for the dogs. 54 dogs?!?! In my mind that would be paradise coming home to 54 dogs but 54 fighting dogs, thats a different story.
Side-note, this is the reason why Pit bulls have a bad name because of people like Michael Vick. These loving dogs are taught to be cruel and aggressive because that is all their taught and if they don’t fight they die. They might be intimidating dogs to some but they are the sweetest loving dogs ever. It is not fair that people scream or run the other way once they see a Pit Bull because their not bad. If anything the owners are the bad ones!
Vick and the three other men pled guilty for their wrong doings. But I still don’t understand the reasoning of them getting joy out of fighting dogs. To me I feel like you have to be pretty messed up in the head to want to see two dogs go at each others throat. Dogs are supposed to be your best friend and you are supposed to love them unconditionally like they love you unconditionally. It breaks my heart when I hear these stories about people using their dogs for nonsense. I know hate is a strong word but I hate people who do this to dogs. The way I love my dog I would NEVER do anything to hurt my dog. I treat my dog like a real baby.
