The Dogs of War

As a bonafide, papered Hokie, I feel compelled to comment on the situation with Michael Vick and his indictment on dog fighting charges.

My first comment is that we have a responsibility to allow the legal system to proceed. Trying a person in the media may sell a lot of things, but it is not justice. The basis of our system is still that someone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Now, I am not going to get into a discussion about the state of out legal system right now, so if you have any comments about that, save them for a later discussion. My point is that regardless of all the facts, stories, innuendos, and interviews that are in the media right now, it is still up to the courts to determine his guilt.

My second comment is that dog fighting, or any animal fighting, is unnecessarily brutal and culturally unacceptable. I understand that some forms of animal fighting have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years. However, societies and cultures change over time. This is one competition that is not acceptable any longer. If individuals want to watch a bloody, vicious fight, all they have to do is attend a professional wrestling match, a boxing match, or one of the new "ultimate" fighting matches. All of those sports (some more loosely termed sport than others) contain enough skill, blood, violence and betting potential to satisfy any person's blood lust. The one thing they do not regularly contain is the prospect of death. It is unusual for a contestant (combatant) in one of those events to die during the match. It is not so with dog fighting. If someone wants to participate in a violent event, they should learn to wrestle, they should learn to box, they should learn to fight. In short, the should have the balls to put their own blood and sweat on the line. Anything else and they are simply sorry-assed, ignorant couch potatoes.