Dog fighting on the rise

I was watching C-SPAN2 live coverage of Senate speeches the other day and walking to the podium comes none other than the honorable Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd. At first, I thought he was delirious as he started on this bizarre speech denouncing the rise of Dog Fighting.

Dog Fighting….wtf?? I thought that went out with the middle ages.

Apparently not.

Seeing that I am covered these days in plaster, html and php trying to re-furb Beck’s Cafe I haven’t really been paying attention to the news. But I’ll be darned right there in prime time was a report on Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, himself involved in a dog-fighting ring (see story on Vic by clicking to Yahoo News here) . Friends, we have now reached a time in history where the bizarre is commonplace.

Senator Byrd went on to say that this truly horrendous bloodsport is on the rise. Clearly some people have WAY too much disposable income and FAR too much disposable time on their hands. But is it really on the rise in general and how about here in Boston?

On the national front, it is just sad. We pulled up an article from CBS that did an expose in Chicago on dog fighting on July 19th, 2007. You can visit CBS2 in Chicago at this link HERE to read the full story, but just read this quote by a “trainer” of dogs for dogfighting…this is just one method they use to get those dogs “ready” to fight:

“We’d get 17, 18 bumblebees and put them in his food so that when he ate it, it would sting his gums he went nuts, driving him berserk,” Chico said.

Well now that’s a way to train an innocent domestic animal that is 95% of the time docile and man’s best friend. It’s nice to see the human race has reached the pinnacle of civilization and is now de-evolving.

I did a little snooping around over coffee on this heinous practice and thought I’d share the linkie love with you all. Diane Jessup, who started the Law Dogs program, has a gruesome piece on what dogfighting is all about, you can read her article at her site, “Working PitBull” at this link here.. It made my skin crawl. I’m not sure what kind of “men” dogfighting kinda guys are but it’ll make you scratch your head.

But what about the hard numbers on this “sport”. Is this on the rise or was this just an eye catching feature story for a slow July news month? Sadly, according to a CNN report during an interview with John Goodwin, an expert on animal fighting with the Humane Society, there are an estimated 40,000 professional dogfighters in the United States and purses for such fights can reach $100,000.00. Follow the money and you’ll find something. Sometimes what you find is good, this time what you find is bad. You can read the full CNN report on dogfighting at this link here.

What about here in Boston? Surely we are more “sophisticated”? Well, maybe not. Beck’s Cafe had an email exchange with Joanne Mainiero, Director of the Massachusetts Humane Society on this topic. She told us that Massachusetts does indeed have some illegal dogfighting rings around but that they don’t generally last very long. Usually they are caught quickly. But, she told us, the evidence of dogfighting is here even on an amateur basis with dead dogs found in yards. Pretty gruesome.

We asked Ms. Mainiero what could be done to help combat this practice and she had this advice. First, she suggested that all of us contact the NFL to suspend Michael Vick. The Humane Society even has a quick mailer set up so that you can send your sentiments on this subject over to The NFL Commish. You can reach the Humane Society web page with the “NFL, Throw the Book at Michael Vick” emailer at their site at this link here. Second, be on the lookout. The Humane Society has a fact sheet on this subject and you can reach it by clicking to the Human Society “dogfighting fact sheet” as this link here.