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I watched an interview on one of the larger cable news networks, though I don't recall which one, that featured a woman defending the "sport' of dogfighting.

Personally, I don't see dogfighting as any more of a sport than horse racing, dog racing or any other activity where something other than a human being is actually performing some feat of physical endurance. Football, soccer, track, basketball, hockey...those are sports. Training a dog to tear apart another dog is not a sport. Outfitting roosters with spurs and betting on which one will survive a fight is not a sport. Riding a horse and whipping it to make it run faster is not a sport, in my opinion (though I am sure some will disagree).

The woman's face was obscured in the interview, but she spoke of dogfighting like it was a real sport--as though it was somehow "legitimate." The interviewer took it easy on her, never asking her if she murdered dogs who didn't perform well. She was not asked if she performed the acts for which Vick is condemned (though we know she performs at least some of the acts for which he is charged). She acted as though the dogs were nothing more than machines that fought each other for her enjoyment and she touched on none of the more gruesome aspects of the Vick case.

I'm looking over at my 8-year-old son hugging our dog goodnight and telling the dog what a good boy he is. I'm contrasting that with the mental image of Vick slamming a dog to the ground to kill it for not being ready to fight another dog to the death. Just how f***ed up does one have to be to do that or to electrocute an animal for fun?

Vick and his buddies need to go down. Their "hobby" (not a sport) encourages the abduction of family pets to be used as a bait of sorts. It is sick and senseless. Perhaps if Vick and his fellow animal torturers got the maximum sentence allowable, a message might be sent to others who torture animals for "fun" and profit that they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Vick lied to the public, to his team owner and to the NFL. Surely that violates the personal conduct codes. Surely, torturing animals and bankrolling the breeding, fighting and torture of animals must violate personal conduct codes. Betting on the outcome of illegal dogfights must violate the personal conduct code. I say, can him.