Vick INDICTED!

[lizbud]

Score one for these poor dogs.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

[RICHARD]

Good,

He'll still play because he can afford the lawyers.

He'll gp tp rehab and everything will be hunky dory.

[lizbud]

Another big blow to dog fighters & take down of a breeding/training
operation lately. There is one paragraph in this article describes the cruel
"traning process" that the animals go through.


Cops say dogs bred to kill
--------------------

Raid shuts down major dog-fighting operation

By Matthew Walberg, Tribune staff reporter. Freelance reporter Wendy E.
Normandy contributed to this report

July 14, 2007

Dozens of fighting dogs -- many of them scarred, starved and scared --
were removed from a barn in South Holland on Friday in what officials
described as a major bust of a high-end breeding and training operation.

"Today we made the largest seizure of dogs in the history of the state
of Illinois," Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said at a news conference
outside the home of the dogs' owner, a 29-year-old man now facing
felony charges related to dog fighting and animal cruelty.

Thirty-seven dogs -- from puppies to adults in top fighting condition
to broken, wounded older animals -- were removed from cages stacked
three high in a dark room in the barn behind the suspect's home.

Most appeared to be pit bulls, but one -- a urine-soaked dog, larger
than the pit bulls, and whose hair was falling out -- was thought to be a
"bait dog," used to train the pit bulls to fight, investigators said.

Treadmills to increase the animals' stamina and amphetamines to make
them fight harder and stronger also were recovered, Dart said.

The suspect was taken to the sheriff's police headquarters in Maywood.
Charges won't be filed before Saturday, spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.
It would not be the first time the man has faced charges in connection
with dog fighting, Dart said.

"This is an individual who was just recently convicted of attending a
dog fight in Livingston County, by Pontiac, Illinois," he said. "We were
involved in that arrest as well. That was a large outdoor dog-fighting
event that went on about a year and a half ago."

Investigators have not found any evidence dog fights took place at the
South Holland barn. Authorities said the suspect bred and trained the
dogs to sell or rent to individuals who entered them in fights
elsewhere. The dogs typically sold for about $500 each, an investigator said.

The property in the 15900 block of Cottage Grove Avenue, surrounded by
homes, seemed an unlikely location to house, breed and train fighting
dogs.

With the doors to the barn open, the pungent odor of dog urine and
feces wafted through the neighborhood, and the sound of the dogs could be
heard a block away.

"It's one of the things that I found astounding when I came here, both
from the aroma and the noise, that more people did not know about it,"
Dart said. "But there is a level of insulation inside the barn that
keeps you from hearing things inside and out, and there also was a
mechanism in the ventilation, where it kicked in radios as well to try to
drown out the sound [of the dogs]."

Operation hidden

It appeared to work. Neighbors gathered throughout the morning and
afternoon, incredulous when they learned of the dogs.

"This is going to come as a shock to everybody," said Charles Dixon,
53, of the 15900 block of South Drexel Avenue, about a block from where
the dogs were discovered. "We knew he had dogs. You could open your
window last summer and the stench would knock you out. We went to him and
asked him to clean it up, and he did."

Dixon said he never suspected his neighbor was raising dogs to fight.

"He seemed like a real nice guy," he said. "But then, they say John
Wayne Gacy was a hell of a nice neighbor, too."

Call began scrutiny

Dart said a concerned citizen contacted South Holland police and his
office in May. He declined to identify the person, but two workers for
animal shelters who were watching the bust said they tipped off police.
Officials close to the investigation confirmed their role.

One of the workers, who did not wish to be identified for fear of
reprisal, said she and her colleague went to the suspect's home May 14 and
told him he was breaking the law. The police were called, and the
workers said the officers told them they had to leave the suspect's property.

The two workers told reporters they believed police did not take their
suspicions seriously. But an investigator at the scene said that as a
result of the May 14 incident, officers with the sheriff's police
special operations unit and the South Holland department began trying to
develop evidence for a search warrant.

A neighbor who lives across the street said he began seeing police in
unmarked cars watching the home the last several weeks, and one
investigator interviewed him about a week ago.

"I told him that the place was like a gas station -- people coming and
going constantly at night," said the man, who did not wish to be
identified. "I thought maybe he was dealing drugs."

A horrific process

Dart and investigators said the process by which a happy puppy is
transformed into a brutal fighter is simple: First, break the animal's will
by keeping it in the dark, in a cramped cage without adequate food or
water, and, on occasion, batter it with loud music. Then, once the
animal is reduced to a shell, rebuild it physically and mentally through
better feeding, strength training and beatings and torture to make it
angry. Then, take it out and bet money on what essentially are death
matches.

The sheriff said it was too soon to know whether any of the dogs would
be put to death.

Dart said the investigation is ongoing.

He lamented the cachet dog fighting has garnered, both in bragging
points for gang members and as a lucrative moneymaker.

"That's one of the things that's really so troubling," Dart said. "They
become status symbols within the gangs, and it's also used as a way of
making money. It's not anything like what somebody might say is a
harmless offense. This is incredibly serious -- the amount of cruelty
toward the animals is unbelievable."

----------

[Lady's Human]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2940065

Maybe it's time for Mikey to take a season-long leave of absence to ensure his legal issues are taken care of and he's not a distraction to the team.

[Hellow]

I liek Vick because he is a awsome QB but thats all that i knew about him was that he played football, not that he fought dogs.

[Queen of Poop]

Michael Vick and all his cronies need to go directly to jail. Where the jailers are all dog lovers.