Let me preface this by saying this is a purely emotional reaction. I’m not saying he should still be in jail, that he got off easy, or that he shouldn’t be a free man.

I think what gets me isn’t the fact that he’s a felon. It’s the nature of the crime. I’m all about second chances. People make mistakes and deserve a second opportunity. The next perfect person I meet will be the first.

But there’s just something about someone who can torture and kill a living animal for entertainment that I just can’t forgive. This wasn’t a person who made a one time mistake that had drastic consequences. These weren’t mistakes. These were decisions. Consistently bad decisions made over the course of a 5+ year span.

Points and counterpoints:

They were only dogs

Obviously. If these were humans he had tortured, forced to fight to the death, and murdered if they performed poorly he’d spend the rest of his life in a solitary confinement, or worse. Everybody is cognizant of this fact.

But the ability to force animals to fight to the death, and perhaps a worse sin, to torture and kill animals that are not performing is a character flaw that I can’t overlook, and can’t help but wonder what other flaws are hidden in his mind. There have been many studies showing the correlation between people involved in dogfighting and their increased odds of being involved in violent crimes. The propensity to inflict pain usually doesn’t end with animals.

Losing everything has changed him

I’m not ready to declare this just yet. Is it possible that jail time has rehabilitated a lost soul? Perhaps. But an 18-month prison sentence certainly provides no guarantees.

Is he sorry for what he did? I’m sure. But how much of that is a result of his (very expensive) fall from grace? How much of that is due to how much he lost? Is any of it due to genuine sorrow for the pain and death he caused to those animals? I’m not convinced. And it’s going to take time for me to get to that point. Right now I see the sorrow, but I also see a man knowing he has to be on his best behavior to re-establish a very lucrative career, knowing he’s one more mishap from losing perhaps his final chance.

Comparison to Donte Stallworth

A comparison between Vick and Donte Stallworth, a former Eagles receiver who killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, immediately comes up. I’m not necessarily sure why, as the fact that there are other bad people in this world does not lessen the horrible acts Michael Vick committed.

Nevertheless, it brings up a good contrast, one of intent. While the consequences of Donte Stallworth’s decision are far more severe, intent means quite a bit to me, as it does with our legal system. That’s why the distinction is made between involuntary manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter, murder and premeditated murder.

Regardless of how irresponsible, thoughtless, negligent (and criminally negligent) Donte Stallworth was, his intent when he started up the car was not to take a life. I can see that as a mistake, I can understand someone doing that and feeling sorry after word, and I can see somebody rehabilitating themselves and becoming a functioning member of society.

I cannot do the same for torture and killing. I cannot see holding a dog underwater and electrocuting them as someone making a mistake, and I do not believe that someone who was capable of doing this for 5+ years is someone who is going to immediately turn his life around because he was caught.

None of this changes the fact that Stallworth’s gross negligence took the life of Mario Reyes, and his lack of intent will not bring him back. But Michael Vick woke up many mornings with the intent to torture and kill innocent animals being forced to fight for their life. I just can’t get past that.

Everyone deserves a second chance

Sure. And as I stated above, Michael Vick deserves to be a free man. He deserves to be able to be with his family, and to try to earn a living.

Michael Vick has been guaranteed his freedom from the confinement of the federal government.

That does not mean he’s guaranteed to return to his pampered, privileged lifestyle in the NFL. He’s not guaranteed a 2 year, $7 million salary. He’s not guaranteed fame and adulation.

And him being a free man certainly doesn’t guarantee that I have to be happy he’s on my favorite football team.

It’s not his fault. He grew up around it

Phooey. Any sane, rational human being will realize that building a rape stand to torture animals who don’t perform well is cruel and inhumane. I don’t care what part of the country you’re from, and what you experienced growing up. I find this argument to be a cop-out.

Comparisons to other forms of entertainment

I said above that anyone who gets their rocks off on the torture and violence towards living beings is sick. Does that mean anyone who likes any violent sports (boxing, mma, heck even football) is sick?

Let’s not be absurd. On the one hand you have a fight to the death in which both participants are forced into participating in, for no benefit of their own. Their reward for winning is they get to fight for their life again. Their risk is death. If they perform poorly, they can be electrocuted and killed.

On the other hand you have two willing participants who enter into the contest by their own accord, with the chance of personal gain. They can withdraw at any point, in a contest with predefined rules and regulations to help prevent catastrophe.

Just as intent means quite a bit, choice does as well. Agreeing to enter into a boxing match, that you can decide when it ends, for your own personal gain, where the intended ending is not the death of one of the participants is drastically different than being forced into a life or death fight.

(the new one, Peanut, is the little guy on the right, obviously)