Michael Vick and Pit Bull puppy
While the crimes that occurred on the properties of Michael Vick are considerable the media has lost sight of 'the bigger picture' and why the 'dog operation' of this Sports Superstar was literally a 'side line' to a drug crime.
My initial reaction was not so much surprise but realization. I consider these little understood 'hobby farms' a potential passion of an inner city kid now Sports' Superstar. Not really the case. Evidently, the dogs (primarily pitbulls) were more or less neglected and abused. This is a matter of amusement rather than an 'groomed' international dog fighting ring. I believe the 'focus' on the crimes of Michael Vick allows a larger question to be circumvented to the elation of animal lovers without their consent.
Michael Vick's woes highlight sordid world of dog fighting (click here)
...found 54 pit bulls on the property and uncovered the graves of seven other pit bulls that investigators said had been killed after their fighting instincts had been tested. The conclusion: The animals' cruel masters found their feroci-ty wanting and dispatched them. The documents say some animals were starved to make them more ferocious. Most fights were to the death, but some dogs simply gave up. Those, prosecutors said, were then killed; some were drowned, some electrocuted, others shot and still others strangled....
That is not a dog breeding operation so much as a dog access operation to what might be a drug oriented network by a Vick family member. The lack of focus on the drug charges of Mr. Vick's cousin allows Mr. Vick 'an out' as a victim to others bad behavior. As noted on this 'timeline' the drug crime disappears as soon as a charge is leveled again Michael Vick.
Michael Vick timeline (click here)
April 24: Michael Vick’s cousin Davon Boddie is arrested in Hampton, Va., on drug charges. According to court papers, he gives his address as 1915 Moonlight Road in rural Surry, Va., and police obtain a warrant to search his home for other drugs and paraphernalia.
April 25: Police serve the warrant in Surry and find numerous dogs and what looks like a dog-training complex of dark-painted buildings in the woods just behind the house, which is owned by Vick. They call animal-control officers, who count 66 dogs (55 pit bulls) and see what they say is evidence that dogfights had taken place there. Police obtain another warrant and seize the dogs and various items.
May 8: Vick loses his sponsorship deal with AirTran Airways.
May 23: Investigators obtain a third warrant, this one to search the property for buried dog carcasses. But the local prosecutor decides not to execute it, saying he is worried the dogfighting warrants are tainted because the animal-control officers might have been overzealous in their searches.
June 4: Reports surface that Vick’s house was broken into in early to mid-May.
June 7: More than a dozen representatives of the U.S. attorney’s office in Richmond, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Virginia State Police converge on the home, executing a sealed federal search warrant....
My concern is this. With such focus on Michael Vick and the abuse of animals, is there a larger involvement in a drug network or not by this man? Or. Is the drug involvement simply a cousin's addiction. I believe the enthusiasm regarding animal welfare causes a chance that there is more here than a dog fighting operation. How extensive was the 'drug issue' because evidently it was huge enough to cause police authorities to invest a lot of time and effort to uncover it?
