Vick case stirs debate over value of dogs versus people

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Vick case stirs debate over value of dogs versus peoplePosted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/2/07BY SUSAN RUSSELL For five seconds, the horrors of the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal seemed crystal clear. Americans know an atrocity when they see one.Then the competition began. It's people versus animals, went the refrain. Compassion must be rationed. It's either/or.Hot air from

conservatives? Not really. More like a cold wind from the left.Kindness is a vanishing American virtue — at least for the chattering classes. It seems the more interest groups there are, the less genuine kindness there is. Perhaps acute specialization breeds selfishness — only we matter! — hardening the heart to everyone and everything else.And so it was that a cadre of liberal talking heads and columnists belittled widespread outrage over dogfighting. Each touted his or her own cause — and species — as more deserving of the outrage. A few appeared more outraged by public compassion for dogs than by dogfighting itself. "Mere dogs," they sniffed. "What about people?"Sandy Kobrin is a regular contributor to Women's eNews, and, presumably, a feminist. Deeply offended, Kobrin wrote: "Beat a woman? Play on. Beat a dog? You're gone. What could possibly account for this bizarre situation? The anti-animal-abuse lobby, meanwhile, is

going after Vick with all four paws."When the least powerful among us are viewed as competitors — for attention, for compassion, for funds — we've become very small indeed.One would think that in a nation that slaughters nearly 10 billion animals a year for food, kills another 30 million a year for amusement and destroys untold millions of unwanted dogs and cats every year, it shouldn't be too trying to give brutalized dogs their day.Shouldn't the progressive mantra of respect apply not only to chosen groups of people, but also to persecuted animals and the human beings who work to protect them?If any of the commentators so morbidly offended by the outpouring of sympathy for dogs over people didn't take a sustained stand against athletes beating women, they are hypocrites squared.Likewise, interests who are usually judgmental and quick to assign blame looked the other way. Dogs? What dogs? According to Vick's

apologists, he made a vague "mistake." One columnist wrote that "Michael Vick was crucified" — even after the football player pleaded guilty. All forgot to mention the tortured dogs.Such stilted ethics are light years behind humanity's greatest thinkers and philosophers. Pythagoras, Seneca, Plutarch, Da Vinci, Voltaire, Paine, Montaigne, Twain, Tolstoy, Locke, Darwin, Hugo, Zola, Schopenhauer, Einstein and so many others were impassioned advocates for animals, as well as for humans."The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man," wrote Charles Darwin. Thomas Edison said, "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are savages.I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights," wrote Abraham Lincoln. "That is the way of a whole human being."What children, men, women and thousands of pit bulls have in common is that they are

daily victims of insensate, burgeoning violence. Given the documented link between violence against animals and violence against humans, is there any clearer sign that the circle of compassion, as Albert Schweitzer called it, must include both?Humanitarians of all stripes, for all species, must make education inculcating nonviolence and kindness toward humans and animals a priority, in cities where violence against humans, dogfighting and cockfighting flourish, and in rural areas where animal fighting is entrenched.Authorities say crimes of cruelty are nearing a crisis stage. Behind a Tallahassee, Fla., home last month, police found dozens of starving, wounded pit bulls feared too far gone to be helped. Days before, deputy sheriffs uncovered a mass grave of 28 roosters, cockfighting weapons and $25,000 in cash. In New Jersey, Trenton, parts of Salem County, Paterson and other areas are on the grid.Until the Vick case, enforcement of

animal fighting laws was rare. Now, cruelty enforcement is on the upswing, with new cases breaking every week.The venality of dogfighting isn't limited to gansta rap or to famous football stars. It cuts across racial lines. A 1998 undercover investigation of dogfighting in the U.S. found that the participants were generally poor, usually rural and "overwhelmingly white."We know and love dogs. It is their proximity to us that makes them lovable. We don't know the panicked animals forced to endure killing and bleeding floors in slaughterhouses. They are the untouchables, deliberately kept out of sight, out of mind. How many kind, well-meaning people condemned dogfighting, then sat down to a fat, juicy steak from a steer who, given the odds, was skinned alive, and who, to paraphrase Thoreau, held his life by the same tenure we do?The bottom line: If breeding "man's best friends" to rip each other apart — to cheers and jeers — then

drowning and electrocuting the broken, bleeding "underperformers" didn't shock the conscience of most, albeit not all, Americans, we'd be in trouble.Fortunately, most Americans and the media got this one right. The bean counters might ponder the lesson.Susan Russell, Little Silver, is a lobbyist, researcher and writer on animal issues. Post a Comment View All Comments Another fine writing from Susan Russell. This animal advocte never fails to hit the man"kind" nail on the head. Thankfully she is on the right side of being left.Posted by: CDWD on Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:38 pm Post a Comment View All Comments http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070902/OPINION/709020305/1030Copyright © 2007 Asbury Park Press"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe. Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." Albert Einstein

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