Guilty.

The Michael Vick story has made a mess of me. At home, I’m banned from cnn.com and I’m not supposed to watch the news. But it’s pretty much illegal to drive around San Francisco without NPR on and I can’t bring myself to turn the dial. So I manage to hear the latest.

My question to the NFL: What are you waiting for? If I found out that someone who worked for me – even if he was my star employee – enjoyed abusing and killing animals, I wouldn’t hire him to clean my toilet. Dump Vick. Don’t let him near a dog, a fish, or a fly. Don’t let him water a houseplant.

And how is it that he’s being commended for “doing the right thing” by pleading guilty? He only did so when it was clear the evidence against him was strong enough to yield a conviction. What a coward. It's not ok to torture people, and it's not ok to torture animals. The "just a dog" argument sickens me. Suffering is suffering -- no species should have to endure it for the sake of another's entertainment.

As for apologizing to everyone, those he hurt the most will never get an apology (as if that could undo the torture that was inflicted anyway). Vick isn’t sorry for anything other than getting caught. This was not a one-time mistake. This was not an error in judgment. Hanging a dog takes forethought. Electrocuting a dog takes planning. Starving a dog takes persistence and determination. These were choices Vick made again and again, not a one-time act done out of carelessness.

And as for Vick’s potential, yeah, it truly is a waste. He’s a failure as a human being.

And in Some States, Merely a Misdemeanor

I wonder how long it will be before I get used to seeing suffering. This week was particularly unbearable. Sage was so emaciated, I was shocked he could even stand up. And Angel's tumor had become so large, the skin around it was broken, exposing a football-sized mass of blood, bone, guts, and bacteria. At Give a Dog a Bone, we frequently see the victims of neglect and cruelty, but rarely do we see the perpetrators. Maybe that's for the best. If Michael Vick is guilty of the crimes he's been accused of, he deserves worse than anything I could inflict. Had his property been in San Francisco, his surviving dogs would now be in custody, in our care. So instead of hoping for justice that can never be served (no matter what Vick's sentence, it won't erase the torture these dogs endured), I'll throw the tennis ball for Trixie, one of the many pit bulls at ACC now. Living in a tiny kennel, with 20 minutes in the park on a good day, it's hard to believe she is one of the lucky ones.