After his co-defendants entered their guilty pleas and agreed to testify against Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback didn’t have a lot of options left.
On Monday, he pleaded guilty to dogfighting conspiracy charges. (He originally entered a plea of not guilty on July 26.) According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
The plea agreement calls for a prison term of 12 to 36 months, according to a source with knowledge of last week’s talks between Vick’s defense team and the prosecution. Other sources have said the sentencing guidelines will be closer to 12 to 18 months.
However, a federal judge at sentencing is not necessarily restricted by the guidelines.
The combined single charge against Vick — conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and conspiracy to sponsor a dog in an animal-fighting venture — carries a statutory maximum prison sentence of five years.*
In addition to the legal penalties that will follow, Vick has also faced serious financial repercussions for his actions.
Read more Vick developments:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Dog and cock fighting are both huge where I live. Both sicken me.. I can’t understand how any human being can do such a thing.
I agree! It’s absolutely mad.
Although it has been upsetting to read some of the details of Vick’s treatment of dogs, I’m glad that this issue is getting national attention and that people are outspoken enough that his sponsors are dropping him. Just read today that rapper DMX is also suspected of being connected to dogfighting; if the allegations are true, I hope the reaction is equally vocal. Keep posting!
Your pictures of the Mom and baby above are adorable! It is hard to imagine someone hurting a dog. I really can’t even imagine it. I hope I never see it.
If there is anything good about the Michael Vick story, it is that there is an emerging increased awareness about animal cruelty and animal fighting. There is so much anger about this issue. If we channel it into a positive direction, hopefully, something good can come of it. However…
I watched Vick’s public apology with my little son who USED TO wear Michael Vick jerseys to school. It is disturbing to think a certain percentage of the population is honestly going to be swayed by Michael Vick’s “enlightenment” carefully crafted by his overpaid attorneys. Call me a cynic, but I don’t believe a man who has been allegedly torturing animals since childhood coincidentally has a religious epiphany as a result of getting caught and losing his job. I hope I am wrong.
I think it is a sad commentary that we, as a culture, are using the Vick story to compare “What’s worse?” “What’s worse”, we ask, “carelessly fathering illegitimate children, or dogfighting?”. “Dogfighting or gambling?” “Dogfighting or rape?” “Dogfighting or racism?” “Dogfighting or hateful nationalism?” “Dogfighting or (fill in the blank)….?” The comparisons to dogfighting have been endless.
Dogfighting is one more piece of evidence our country is in need of a spiritual transformation (please note I said spiritual and not necessarily religious). Animals are sentient beings – they feel pain, and they suffer, just like we do. They are not more important, or less important than human beings, but like human beings, they are important, too.
Dogfighting pits one dog against another until one of them dies. The survivor gets his flesh torn off, ears ripped off, eyes pulled out, etc., and the reward for being “a winner” is to writhe in pain until the next fight. Enough said. The pictures make my flesh crawl. The losers are tortured, beaten, starved, electrocuted or drowned. For what? Because these poor creatures were unlucky enough to be born a dog!
Every major faith teaches its followers to be responsible stewards of animals and the Earth. Please help us get the word out that caring for animals, just like caring for people, is an important part of just being a decent person and citizen. If we make this a priority, there will be no more dogfighting horror stories, and no more pointless comparisons of evils. Let us all rise, together, to be better people than we are today, shall we?
Chaplain Nancy Cronk
Founder, http://www.AnimalChaplains.com