Animal Cruelty – Indefensible

There has been a lot in the news lately about animal cruelty. The unbelievable case of Michael Vick still angers me. His defense of what he did is a mockery. To say that he got in with the wrong people and that he needs to “grow up” are pathetic excuses for what he did.  It shows me that he really enjoys torturing and killing innocent and helpless animals. Almost as outrageous is Whoopie Goldberg’s pathetic defense of Michael Vick on the TV show ‘The View’. I always thought that Rosie O’Donnell was a nut case but what Whoopie Goldberg said about the Michael Vick case was outrageous beyond words. Whoopie said that in the South (I live in Virginia) it was not uncommon for people to fight dogs and that it was a part of the Southern culture. What an outrageous statement. With that statement she managed to slander an entire culture and people. Dog fighting and animal cruelty are not a part of Southern culture and not condoned by anyone in the South.

And now I read about a Phoenix police officer who left his 5 year old Belgian Malinois (I had a Belgian Malinois myself for 9 years before she died) police dog in his squad car for 12 hours while he ran errands for his wife, napped, and later had dinner with his wife. Where the hell did this idiot think his dog was while he was out doing all these things for 12 hours? I can’t believe anyone could just forget where his dog was for 12 hours. Phoenix this time of year is very hot and I would think that a K9 officer would know where his dog was at all times. But what really upsets me is that in most cases animal cruelty is just a misdemeanor, no different than jaywalking or speeding. I find that fact to be sad. In a society where even the judicial system thinks that animal cruelty is no big deal, we will always have people like Michael Vick, Whoopie Goldberg and the K9 police officer in Phoenix who apparently think the same thing. How very sad.