I have been around this breed for quite some time now (going on 9 years) and I have seen my fair share of high profile dog fighting busts. However, this case is different because Vick is a mainstream media high profile sports star.

Personally I don't watch much football but I do know that Vick was getting into lots of trouble before this fighting stuff popped up. When it popped up the General Attorney of Virigina said they would probably not press charges because he said this seemed like a "witch hunt." Now I don't know about you but if that were you or me we would have probably been locked up that day.

From the start this case started to get on my nerves. Lawyers saying they weren't going to pursue Vick because (fill in excuse right here) and then finally he was indicted on dog fighting and animal cruelty charges. A blow to dog fighting every where? I hate to say this but I doubt it. A blow to Vicks personal life? Yes. A blow to the NFL and his sponsors? Yes. Will it really matter in the end? Probably not.

You see for every Vick there are 200 low lifes out there that fight their dogs on a regular basis in the cover of darkness in some backwoods barn or some downtown warehouse or on some patch of dessert out in the middle of nowhere. For every Vick there are street gangs having impromptu "fights" in back alley's around this nation daily.

Vick as brought the fighting scene to the general public but if you look at the reactions of people you can see they feel it's no big deal. Even other NFL players are laughing and saying that if Vick gets punished for this then he is getting a bum rap and it is "for no reason." There are millions of people who simply do not care. They would rather see Vick throw a pass regardless of his criminal activities. This both ticks me off and tells me we live in a sad time.

Will Vick pay for his crimes? Maybe. Will we, as Pit Bull owners get redemption for our breed? Not by a long shot. This will not help our cause and it will not help stop breed bans. I say this based on past history. All you need to do is look into the past and you will see how these things really effect our future. If anything it will lead to more restrictions and more bans because "once they are fighters they are dangerous to everyone and everything" or some other line people will feed the ignorant public.

As I said before, I have seen my fair share of high profile dog fighting cases. What happened? Nothing. These cases did not shed light onto how people abuse these dogs for their own greed and egotistical reasons but instead it lead law makers to tighten their reign over us and it led to that stupid, "Signs of dog fighting" list the HSUS and other organiaztions put out. Which basically says, if you have more than one dog, friends that come over with their dogs, spring poles, treadmills, or Cat Mills (a Jenny mill) then you must be a dog fighter. One subscriber of the Gazette is currently fighting in NYC because his dog was taken after they found a spring pole in his yard. They took the dog on "suspicion of dog fighting."

Finally, I have seen several people taking a stance against Vick and his supporters by using shirts with obscene images and foul langauge on them describing Vick. I won't repeat it here but let's just say it rhymes with Vick and men have them. This is silly in my eyes and it damages our image further. This is like a school yard your momma couldn't beat up my momma argument.

Have some class about this. Yes, show your anger but show it in a productive way. Where a shirt that says something less vulgar and more powerful. A simple, "If you support Vick you support animal abuse" would be far more powerful. At least I think so.

Okay, enough about that retard, let's dive into the rest of the issue...

Best Regards,

Jason Mann - Senior Editor and Publisher