3 posts tagged “dogs”
I am just floored at what you have sent on behalf of my local Pet Rescue. I strongly suspect they have never experienced this much generosity. I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought a padded envelope or two might show up with a few rawhide bones and a few catnip mice but I have gotten boxes of wonderful things and I am sure they will be overjoyed when they get them Christmas Eve. I still have a few weeks to gather more stuff and since they have such a hard time getting anything they will be as floored as I am at your generosity. I am thinking I may have a truckload once I add some big bags of food.
I have an idea and maybe one of you may have more insight. I thought I could go to carpet places and see if they have carpet samples with the bound edges. They usually throw them out. I thought they might be good for pens since it has been colder out and many of the floors are cold concrete. Does that sound like something they could wash? I don't want to call the rescue because I want it to be a big surprise for them. My hope is to pull up with a truckload of stuff and take some pressure off a few of the people that spend so much of their own time and money on this project.
Any other ideas are totally welcome. You all know as much as I do about this.
I want to give a special shout out to snoringKatZ, Cranky Pants, and Robbbiedobbbie who have made me cry repeatedly with their generous gifts. These are those random acts of kindness we all hear so much about. They have eached raised the bar for me. They have made the possibilities seem endless for me. One small act at a time and before we know it we have conquered another thing that makes a huge difference for humanity.
God bless the beasts and the children. To me there is no difference with the exception that the kids stand a far better chance of at least getting fed everyday. I thank you all for your kindness. Christmas has come early in Nashville.
Michael Vick will spend the next four months defending himself against federal dogfighting charges instead of mastering a new coach's playbook and dissecting game film of opposing defenses.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback's elite five-member legal team doesn't expect it to be easy and his career could be in jeopardy.
"This is going to be a hard-fought trial," defense attorney Billy Martin told reporters Thursday after Vick pleaded not guilty to participating in a dogfighting ring that allegedly executed underperforming pit bulls by hanging, electrocution or other brutal means.
Three co-defendants also pleaded not guilty. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson set the trial of all four for Nov. 26 - four days after the 11th of 16 regular-season games the Falcons will play under new coach Bobby Petrino.
The ghastly activities outlined in an 18-page indictment returned last week have sparked widespread outrage. Vick's arrival at the federal courthouse was greeted by protesters holding signs with messages like "Neuter Mike Vick" and "Prosecute All Dogfighters." The protesters' boos and jeers drowned out shouts of encouragement from badly outnumbered Vick supporters.
In a written statement, Vick declared his innocence and pleaded with the public to give him the benefit of the doubt until his day in court.
"I take these charges very seriously and look forward to clearing my good name," Vick said in the statement, which Martin read to reporters. "I respectfully ask all of you to hold your judgment until all of the facts are shown."
He also apologized to his Falcons teammates and to his mother "for what she has had to go through in this most trying of times."
Vick's mother, Brenda Boddie, stood next to Martin as he read the statement but did not speak. The lawyers did not answer questions.
Earlier, in court, Hudson asked Vick how he pleaded to a charge of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities.
"Not guilty," the 27-year-old NFL star said firmly.
He asked for a trial by jury, as did his co-defendants.
If convicted, Vick faces up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.
Vick was released without bond, but with a series of conditions to meet, including the surrender of his passport, a pledge not to travel outside the immediate area of his primary residence without court approval, and to not sell or possess any dog.
He also was ordered to surrender any animal breeder or kennel licenses.
The court appearance came on the day the Falcons opened training camp. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has barred Vick from attending camp and asked the Falcons to withhold any punishment while the league investigates.
Team owner Arthur Blank said the team wanted to suspend Vick for four games, the maximum penalty a team can assess a player, but held off at Goodell's request. Blank has told his star quarterback to concentrate on his legal problems, not football.
The case began April 25 when investigators conducting a drug search at a massive home Vick built in rural Surry County found 66 dogs, including 55 pit bulls, and items typically used in dogfighting. They included a "rape stand" that holds aggressive dogs in place for mating and a "break stick" used to pry open a dog's mouth.
Vick contended he knew nothing about a dogfighting operation at the home, where one of his cousins lived, and said he rarely visited. He also blamed friends and family members for taking advantage of his generosity and pledged to be more scrupulous.
His comments Thursday were his first on the case since then.
Charged along with Vick are Purnell A. Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach; Quanis L. Phillips, 28, of Atlanta; and Tony Taylor, 34, of Hampton. All three have retained their own lawyers.
According to the indictment filed July 17, dogs not killed in the fighting pit were often shot, hanged, drowned or, in one case, slammed to the ground. The document says Vick was consulted before one losing dog was wet down and electrocuted.
It alleges that the dogfighting operation began in 2001, not long after Vick was the first overall selection in the NFL draft. His first contract was for $62 million. In 2004, the former Virginia Tech standout signed a 10-year, $130 million deal, then the richest in league history.
The indictment says the fights offered purses as high as $26,000, and that Vick once paid $23,000 to the owner of two pit bulls that had beaten Bad Newz Kennels dogs.
That owner is one of four cooperating witnesses cited in the document.
I'm the guy that has to change the channel when the Serengeti lion chases down and kills the antelope or the killer whale slides up on the beach and grabs a seal by the head. I can't watch animal planet because of the animal abuse they show. Am I burying my head in the sand or am I just too aware of what evil people are capable of? I have a hard time believing what horrors people are willing to put animals through. Recently in Nashville we had a case where several teen boys lit a dog on fire and watched it burn. The dog died two days later and made national headlines. I know so much more than I wish I knew and know how little I can do as one person knowing the magnitude of this problem. Whether it's puppy mills, or just plain mean people doing horrible things to animals I find it so very hard to sleep. The images flash through my head and will not leave.
There are difficult things to discuss and by writing them I am just burning them into my head so I hope I will be able to at least get the images out of my head at some point or I will not be able to go on. Just knowing what goes on makes me oftentimes wish I were not here.
Dog fighters will roam neighborhoods looking for loose family pets. They will bind their limbs and suspend them over a dog pit and allow the fighting dog to tear the family pet limb from limb. They will go to shelters and adopt dogs and use them the same way. They do this with cats also. They found some evidence of this at Michael Vick's home. Another awful phenom is owners of large snakes will patrol neighborhoods and steal small bread dogs and feed family pets to their snakes. Neighborhood missing cats are also found to be used this way. My dogs have never been let out. They have collars and tags and the very least I can do is expect that some day, if anything were to happen to me, that this might be the fate they face in my absence. My sister has volunteered to take all my pets if something ever happens to Kevin and me at the same time. Otherwise I would not be able to sleep.
The darkness of heart or lack of one is enough to make me want to do evil brutal things to them so I am guessing that many of these people who engage in these activities have had something terrible happen to them to make them seek out this blood lust. I see no sport in death. I cannot look at the Coliseum in Rome and see it as an architectural wonder when I think of what took place there. It is an open grave full of suffering souls. I see bullfighting in Spain and Mexico as disgusting and anyone who participates as an animal abuser. This is not culture. I am dumbfounded that an entire community will turn out, children in tow to watch an animal being tortured for entertainment. There is a portion of society that I truly wish did not exist. These people are just one step away from doing these same things to other people and many have. Most child abusers, rapists, murderers have ties to animal abuse and the problem is how they are able to block out any feeling and take sick pleasure in watching the suffering of the innocent. Historically there are many world leaders who suffer from this affliction and we see evidence of this when genocide or mass extermination takes place. How disgusted I am that people show up to support these monsters because of who they are. Michael Vick supporters lined his way into court. WTF is that all about? How could you support someone like that. Innocent? I doubt it. He was Federally Indicted so they will not proceed that way unless they have enough evidence to convict. He has requested a trial by jury and the reasoning behind that is that his attorneys will seek out lower income blacks who see nothing wrong with abusing animals because culturally they don't know any better. How is that for a slap in the face of poor people of African descent. Yet they will support him. He is living some of their dreams out through his wealth and notoriety. He will use these ignorant people to attempt to gain his freedom. They mean nothing more to him than the dogs he has brutalized. His lawyers are behind it so in addition to being money grubbing bottom dwellers they are racists and believe that if they get low income blacks on the jury their client will be exonerated. When people are incapable of rising to the most basic level of humanity then I believe society should be protected from them. I am dumbfounded that the charges that will produce the most jail time is not the deeds done against the animals but the interstate trafficking of these fighting dogs. Their lives are worth so much more. The penalties are so small for these crimes. That message is a loud and clear one. It is time to do something about this. There is a vast difference between eating meat and torturing animals for extended periods of time for pleasure. They will truck out the whole dog and pony show and use legitimate animal cruelty as part of their defense. I am saddened and sickened by it all. Frequently if my mind takes me to these awful places I am unable to sleep for days. When will these men become real men? When will the people around them stop enabling their pitiful actions. When will fathers stop teaching their sons that this activity is acceptable. God bless the beasts and the children. Why don't the Churches teach their parishioners that this activity is abhorrent in the eyes of God. Hunting for food is far different than hunting for the joy of killing. Is there anything more disgusting than a guy strapped in a lawn chair, sprinkled with deer urine, disguised as a tree, hanging off the side of a tree shooting at anything that moves? You killers and takers of life will find out one day when you face loss. When your mother dies at the hands of a brute, or your daughter is raped by a rogue thug how will you handle that? Why do you feel your entertainment is worth more than the precious life of another being. I would seek the death penalty for Michael Vick. I don't think a fine and 5 years in jail makes up for what he has done. I am cold to these people because I know in my heart that it will not end for them. They will continue. If they don't continue torturing animals they will turn to the people, mostly women in their lives and treat them with the same disconnect that they do to the animals they kill. The souls of these victims of violence roam the earth in eternity, never at peace because of the horrible violent deaths they have experienced. It hangs over humanity like a stinking. rotting corpse. I just ask myself How? How can people be so heartless. How can people be so cold? Oh, and then all I have to do is look at my own government and their practice of torturing prisoners and it becomes clear why this is so prevalent. If I can tie a human being to a slab of wood and dunk them under water repeatedly until they tell me what they want to hear then I am not surprised at all by these actions.
Millie and Lolo are little tiny cats even though they are full grown. I found them on the streets of Hollywood and we have had them ever since. They were so malnurished that they never grew any larger than when we found them. Tater came home in a baseball hat the day of the OJ Simpson chase. Gulliver came home from the pound and has been with me longer than even Kevin. They love him so much. His little Tater was a gift to me after another little kitten we got died afew days after we got him. They all miss Dexter. he was the king of the house. I knew Kevin was welcomed into the house when Dexter walked up, rubbed his nose on him, and never left his lap for the next 10 years. Gulliver will always be my big boy. He follows me like a shadow andeven though he is very old and frail he insists on walking room to room following me every minute. When I go out of town on business kevin tells me he sits and looks at the door the whole time I am gone. He's at my feet right now and is my very best friend. He loves me. Kevin had a huge Iguana named Gladys. She was a rescue. He fed her with a bottle and held her like a baby when he did. She was huge and did not like me at all. She would chase me through the house. She slapped her tail on the floor and tried to eat me. The birds liked being with the Iguana in our Vivarium. It was sunny and warm and had a little fountain in it. I miss California but we brought the best part of it with us. Millie, Lolo, Tater, and of course Gully. that I had for 10 years. A Tokay Gecko named Gustav who lived in our garden. A turtle named Shelly, a tarantula named Rosie, and two male Cockatiels named Adam and Steve. Also the four babies we still have and have had for at least 13 to 15 years each. We are a little pack. A family.
