Editorial: Vick case sets off alarm on dogfighting

Michael Vick has reminded us that we're not as civilized as we sometimes think. The Atlanta Falcons' star quarterback, whose football skills make him worth more than $100 million, seems headed to prison for apparently masterminding and bankrolling an extensive dogfighting and gambling enterprise known as Bad Newz Kennels.

The "good newz" in all of this is that Americans -- thanks to the nabbing of a celebrity -- are awakening to the gratuitous cruelty routinely pursued for profit and amusement in some urban and rural settings.

Dogs are bred to fight to the death. They are fed diets of hot sauce and gunpowder. They are periodically starved, tortured with razor blades, forced to run endless miles on treadmills and hung from their mouths to strengthen their jaws, all to enhance ferocity. This, somehow, is taken as a manly pursuit in some quarters, not unlike having the biggest gun or the fastest truck -- except that, in this case, the ultimate point is to draw pleasure from the blood, pain and death of helpless creatures.

Federal authorities say that Vick and an accomplice killed a number of dogs for failing to perform, by means that included hanging and drowning.

"It's the worst expression of who we are that we turn these animals into fighting machines," said Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the U.S. Tolerance of animal fighting "can't help but bleed into the rest of the culture," he said, often resulting in human violence as the next step.

Sociologists note an uptick in animal fighting, and authorities are responding. Since Vick's indictment in mid-July, police have broken up 32 dogfighting rings in 15 states. Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels has complained that the city's North Side is overrun with pit bulls, although police say that they have no proof that the vicious dog that last week killed a 7-year-old boy was being trained to fight.

Animal baiting is an ancient practice, achieving great popularity in imperial Rome and in 16th century England. It's still widespread in Asia and Latin America. In milder forms its "survival" theme is popular in American culture, too, running the gamut from Ultimate Fighting to nearly every "reality" show on TV. There, contestants are systematically humiliated and banished from the group, with only one winner emerging. Even cooking and dating shows have reverted to this sad lone-survivor formula.

The NFL, something of a gladiator sport itself, should be weary of apologizing for players who increasingly confuse on-field and off-field violence. Vick's celebrity, may, indeed, have worked against him in this instance, as some suggest. But his case should awaken the public to greater vigilance against dogfighting, not only because of animal cruelty but because of what it says about humanity's darker nature.