Everyone Deserves Mercy
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Despite my occasional anti-omni rhetoric, I’m a rather gentle and peaceful person.
I believe people can change,
I believe in forgiveness,
I believe in redemption,
and I believe in mercy.
That’s why I am not still angry at Michael Vick. I’m with Mat. I’m with Wayne.
When some so-called animal protection experts (I’m looking at you, PETA) wanted to euthanize the Vick dogs, many caring people stood up and said, “Stop, these dogs deserve a second chance.” Most were eventually rescued from euthanasia and some have been rehabilitated.
Here is a story about one of those dogs from Best Friends:
“Shadow used to be so shy he’d hide in the corner and try to disappear. When he came to Best Friends he wanted nothing to do with anybody. He was completely shut down.
“Not surprising when you learn what he’s had to live through. Shadow is one of the 22 dogs who came to Best Friends from the estate of former NFL quarterback, Michael Vick [...]
“Out of all 22 Vicktory dogs who came to Best Friends, Shadow was perhaps the most withdrawn. Everything terrified him. On his walks, he’d do a sort of commando crawl the whole way, staying as low to the ground as possible.
“[...] Once Shadow came to realize that everybody wanted to love him and help him get better, he became a different dog entirely. Nowadays he loves visitors, walks, and all things fun. An amazing act of healing in a dog who used to think the entire world was one big scary problem to hide from.”
Doesn’t Michael Vick deserve the same chance at rehabilitation that we’ve demanded for his dogs? Doesn’t he deserve a second chance?
Michael Vick was an enemy soldier in the war against dogfighting. He played a crucial role as a dogfighting figurehead who was taken down by an army of dog-lovers, an army that seemed to never stop growing. Even now, the army of dog-lovers continues to grow and do great things for dogs across the nation, from disaster dog rescue to ending greyhound racing to working to stop puppymills.
Without someone like Vick, the unapologetic animal abuser, dogfighting might never have gotten the attention it deserved and the army of dog-lovers might never have tasted the success it needed to taste in order to want more for dogs, in order to fight even harder for other dogs.
Now that Vick has paid his fine and done his time, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. He can change. We can forgive him. He can redeem himself. And he deserves mercy.
Just like his dogs.
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* Image is Shadow.
** At this writing, there are 11,751 Pit Bull Terriers and 3,851 American Staffordshire Terriers available for adoption on Petfinder.
great posting – I agree that a lot of good can come out of this for the animals!
I beg to disagree. Michael Vick is sorry because he was caught. That is great if he is “apologetic,” do I think he deserves to be back in his highly prolific job making millions a year? No, if he is as sorry as he should be, he’d be spending the rest of his life working for the Humane Society, rehabilitating dogs, and his exorbitant salary would be going to injured and rescue dogs around the country that need the help. He basically has “murdered” living things and this does not constitute his life to go back to the way it was, just because he had his hand slapped. True regret, would have him taking his energies towards more productive endeavors than towards his checking account.
“Doesn’t Micheal Vick deserve the same chance at rehabilitation that we’ve demanded for his dogs?”
Uh… should I point out that while Vick’s dogs had the rotten luck to wind up as his property (and to be born into a “dangerous” breed), Michael Vick himself made the conscious decision, over and over again, to do horrible things to them. It’s an apples and oranges comparison. The dogs are victims. Vick ain’t.
I’m not saying that Vick should be locked away for life, or banished from civilization, or even expected to finish his career days working at an animal shelter. I do, however, have to wonder whether it’s truly appropriate for him to be allowed to continue making boatloads of money on the public stage, just as if nothing had ever happened. He deserves mercy – but he doesn’t deserve, I think, to continue in his previous career.
Of course, it can be hard to separate emotions from reason on this one. This morning I was sort of wishing I could have been a professional football player – in most lines of work, you don’t get to roll right back to your old career after having plead guilty to a federal count of felonious animal abuse. Lucky guy.
Please understand that nothing I’ve written suggests that I think it’s acceptable for Vick (or any one for that matter) to be given “boatloads of money” for so little actual work. That is NOT what my article is about.
My article is about recognizing that people CAN change. My article above is about forgiveness and moving on. I wonder, for example, what comes of most of this anger towards Vick? Does it result in any actual benefit to dogs?
I admit, the anger isn’t rational, and it’s not constructive. At the same time, though, it’s hard not to be angry – because he’s admitted to torturing dogs, because he still gets to be a pro athlete, and yup, because he still gets to make lots of money for doing very little actual work. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not quite ready to let go of my anger towards him, especially in the wake of his reinstatement and signing. I suspect that a lot of people are in the same boat.
But you are right. People can change – I ate meat without apology for many years, and now I’m a committed vegan. I don’t know. I’m not ready to forgive Vick. I’m not ready to believe that he’s for real when he speaks out against dogfighting, or gives money to charities working to end it, or asks for help from others in developing empathy towards animals. But I think I’d like to get there.
Thanks for your thought-provoking post, and for the link to Mat’s, which I also enjoyed (and for letting me think these things through in your comments).
I agree with Ann i think he is sorry he got caught. I think him getting back into football is a horrible horrible sign to send to young people. Yes, he should be forgiven but he shouldnt be allowed to play again.
I’m skeptical of criminals who apologize for their misdeeds immediately after being caught/convicted, especially when they invoke the big G, i.e., claim to have “found God” when on trial/in jail. I don’t think Vick’s sorry for killing dogs, but rather is sorry that he got caught. (See also: Nick Hogan; his recent video apology followed the Vick story on CNN’s Issues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Hogan)
That said, Vick served his time; as a private organization, it’s up to the NFL whether they want to reinstate him — but why *shouldn’t* he get his job back? He was (re)hired to throw a football, not as a paragon of virtue and kindness. If kids are looking to athletes (musicians, actors, etc.) as role models, that points to a much larger problem, namely, our culture of celebrity worship. Vick certainly isn’t responsible for our misplaced priorities.
Besides, most football players eat meat, yes? How’s this any better than dogfighting?
That said, I admit that I do have a strong, irrational reaction towards Vick – the fact that he abused dogs is hard to swallow because I have five dog-kids of my own. When you look at it objectively and without emotion, however, it’s obvious that much of the anger towards Vick is rooted in cultural, class and race issues: which animals do we consider “food,” “pets,” “pests,” etc? What constitutes an “acceptable” use of an animal? Which animal-related past times are prestigious vs. low-class? How do we define “unnecessary” “cruelty”? Etc., etc., etc.
The anger directed at Vick rings especially hollow when it comes from those who eat “meat” and dairy, hunt wild-living animals, enjoy horse racing, etc. Which is to say, the overwhelming majority of the people who are outraged by Vick’s reinstatement.
“That said…”
Redundant much, Kelly?
“If kids are looking to athletes (musicians, actors, etc.) as role models, that points to a much larger problem, namely, our culture of celebrity worship. Vick certainly isn’t responsible for our misplaced priorities.”
Excellent point.
Moreover, he can use his celebrity to discourage people from dog-fighting. It sounds like that’s what he’ll do. So that’s a good thing.
I don’t really care about the reasons. I don’t care if he’s truly sorry or not. I just care that he doesn’t hurt dogs anymore. If his reason is that he’s afraid of getting caught, so be it. Either way, he’s not hurting dogs.
I didn’t read this post as being in support of Vick getting his old job back, but as being given the chance to represent the HSUS and others in the fight against animal abuse. It is possible, really possible, that he has had a change of heart, and that may have come from others who helped him see how wrong his views of dogs were. Even Oprah nearly excused his actions by noting that dog fighting is common in the south. Sort of like meat-eating.
I too am willing to give him a chance. And no, this has nothing to do with football.
I wrote it in a “forgiveness” spirit. My aim is to inspire people to use their anger at Vick to do something productive that actually helps animals.
If they feel like boycotting the NFL or protesting the Eagles or sending notes to the HSUS, so be it, I won’t stop them. But I’d rather they spent that energy encouraging people to adopt pitbulls and other dogs from shelters, or fostering shelter animals, or donating time or money to shelters, or encouraging people to go vegan… There are so many more productive ways to use that energy. Why waste it on Vick?
Kelly made an excellent point when she said that:
“The anger directed at Vick rings especially hollow when it comes from those who eat “meat” and dairy, hunt wild-living animals, enjoy horse racing, etc. Which is to say, the overwhelming majority of the people who are outraged by Vick’s reinstatement.”
But I think the response of vegans who think what Vick did is unforgivable, want him to be banished from the NFL or worse, and generally act a lot more outraged by Vick’s treatment of his dogs than they are by the everyday treatment of livestock, is equally problematic. There is NO DIFFERENCE, ethically, between dogfighting and the raising of animals for food, leather, etc.; both result in extreme suffering and death. The only difference is that eating animals for food is accepted by mainstream US culture and dogfighting isn’t. And how is that at all relevant? Slavery was once accepted by mainstream culture, but that didn’t make it any less unethical!
There are two reasons why many vegans are reacting more strongly to Vick’s involvement in dogfighting than to non-vegans’ (or their own past) participation in animal exploitation. For one thing, many vegans still buy into the same speciesist assumption of mainstream culture that the lives and well-being of dogs are more important than those of farm animals. And, not that this is by any means true of everyone who is taking the “no forgiveness” attitude toward Michael Vick, but it’s hard to escape the conclusion that a lot of the vitriole directed at Vick and the willingness to leap to the conclusion that his actions make him an evil person is a product of racism. Most Americans are not overtly racist the way they used to be, but racism is certainly not just a relic of the past. It shows itself on a regular basis in the US today, just in more subtle ways most of the time than in the past, and the public reaction to Vick is an example of it.
@ Jeff & Elaine: Agreed.