What did Michael Vick do that was so bad?

One of the best QBs of our time is going behind bars for exploiting dogs through dogfights, and apparently killing six of them. He was given a sentence of 23 months today.

But wait – islam and judaism, under the respective guises of halal and kosher, oblige their followers to have the animals that they eat as meat killed in utterly grotesque manners. These methods of torturing and killing animals, that are continually condoned and even ‘respected,’ should be perceived as much more appalling than Vick’s actions, as they involve aggravated cruelty (letting animals bleed to death?) and are evidently done more than six times.

A large portion of the world eats meat – there is really no legitimate reason to do so, as we could most definitely all live as vegetarians, without needing to kill animals in order to eat them. The meat industry, in order to operate in accordance with an ever-growing market, is forced to use hormones and other advanced technologies in order to extract the most value from the (dead) animals. Any rational person would deem these aforementioned actions to be equally cruel, if not more cruel than what Michael Vick did.

On the topic of torture, let’s keep in mind that Guantanamo Bay is still open, and American politicians, in futile attempts to demonstrate solidarity, are advocating the torture of detainees as a means of extracting information. Bush actually signed an order banning the use of torture, however the instructions included in the order did not specifically include waterboarding (the simulation of drowning). As a result of this, there is now debate over whether the simulation of drowning is a method of torture or not. Most rational people would concur that it should be regarded as torture, but then again the American government isn’t really made up of rational people… I guess at the very least, the people being tortured at Guantanamo are receiving better health care than 50 000 000+ Americans who don’t have health insurance.

As Chris Rock famously said, “America is the only place in the world where people hunt on a full stomach.” It is an unfortunate truth that a large number of North Americans take part in hunting activities, needlessly killing or injuring animals. Moreover, this is a proponent of exacerbated gun violence on humans, as Cheney, so elegantly, was able to show us.

Here in Canada, we have an annual seal hunt that, in 2006, resulted in the deaths of around 350 000 seals, and one can only imagine the gruesome manners in which they were killed. Minimal regulations were made in order to absolve the hunters of torture allegations; however it is inevitable that there must have been some cases of torture, not to mention the fact that a large number of seals died for commercial/sporting reasons.

So, I guess it’s fine to kill animals in torturous manners under the pretext of religion, it’s fine to pump them full of artificial hormones to ensure that they live miserably as long as they are marketable, it’s fine to endorse methods of torture at Guantanamo, it’s fine to hunt for no reason, and finally it’s alright to club and kill seals. Meanwhile, we still have world leaders who insist on turning a blind eye to the genocide in Darfur, while choosing not to attend World AIDS Conferences. This is precisely why Vick’s actions don’t even come close to warranting the prison time received, let alone any prison time at all.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that all of the actions examined here should be stopped and/or legislated against, all I’m saying is that with the prevalence of torture and deaths that are accepted in our society, the popular perception in the media of Michael Vick (as a bad guy) is one that is extremely hypocritical and completely irresponsive to the multitude of animal and human rights issues that are currently being ignored.