I don't know anything about dog fighting, except that in some areas of the South it appears to be a popular sport. Obviously, it's a vile spectacle in which a pair of dogs try to tear each other to shreds while humans cheer on the sidelines.
As a result, in this nation of dog lovers, there has been a huge outcry against Atlanta Falcon's quarterback Michael Vick for his participation in the so-called sport, even to his running dog fights and allegedly killing some of his animals when he had no further use for them.
This is not the behavior of an allegedly civilized human being, and despite the fact that dog fighting appears to some to be a popular pastime, it's both a serious legal crime and a crime against the conscience of society. In 21st century America it's just not done.
So Michael Vick deserves to pay whatever penalties are attached to his crime. And while he certainly deserves public scorn for his actions, I am somewhat alarmed by the extreme viciousness of the public's reaction to his crime, which is all out of proportion to his offences.
His canine victims are mistakenly seen by many as loveable helpless pooches — the "man's best friend" we all cherish, instead of what they were — members of an aggressive breed specifically bred to kill each other, and not infrequently, human beings as well. It's the nature of the breed. It wasn't, after all, a bunch of loveable Fido's who got offed, but a gang of canine assassins.
Let's put it this way: you wouldn't want one of them in your living room. They are not your average pet pooches. If you are going to judge Vick — and he deserves societal judgment — judge him in the light of that fact and not for what society thinks he has done.
After all, he killed members of a lethal breed of dogs, not people.
That aside, what infuriates me is the incredible misplacement of priorities the extreme and violent public reaction to Vick's offense betrays. You'd think he had revived Auschwitz. How, I ask, can a nation go bonkers over the killing of a handful animals bred to kill each other when yesterday, and all the days before yesterday for over three decades , the people of that same nation have turned a blind eye to the daily butchery of some 3,500 unborn human beings.
How can we agonize over the pain endured by a breed of killer dogs trying to inflict pain on their opponents, while ignoring the indescribable agony of a child in the sanctity of his mother's womb being chopped to pieces while still alive, or scalded to death?
How can we demand the most extreme punishment for Michael Vick for having killed dogs, and yet absolve the baby butchers and their advocates in Planned Parenthood and the rest of the billion dollar abortion industry for having killed 40 million helpless human beings and made a lot more money doing it than Michael Vick ever did killing dogs.?
If this nation had any sense of justice, the principal focus of our anger and our thirst for justice, would be on these baby killing monsters, and not on an athlete who killed dogs.
It's time we got our priorities straight.
Note: Before anybody tries to tell me that pit bulls are all sweet tempered pets, I was attacked without provocation by a neighbor’s pet pit bull, the same animal that scarred the face of young neighborhood girl who made the mistake of trying to pet him.
Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist and World War II Marine who writes for NewsMax.Com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://WWW.pvbr.Com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s.
He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers.
He can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com.
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