"If he is indeed found guilty, the conviction would send the sort of message that needs to be sent,'' said Allison Lindquist, executive director of the East Bay SPCA. Dogfighting is a common, largely hidden blight almost everywhere in the country, she said, including the Bay Area. "This is an unbelievably sadistic, barbaric practice, and a lot of people try to glamorize it. It's not glamorous at all.''
The cold brutality described in the indictment hardly props up any fashionably roguish images. The 52 pit bulls found on Vick's estate were mostly emaciated, authorities said, kept ravenously hungry so that they would eagerly assail the flesh of the dogs they met in the ring. The losing animals, the indictment said, were sometimes executed if they didn't die in the fight. One dog, the grand jury reported, was hosed down after a loss and then electrocuted.
"I think it's the gratuitous cruelty that has really gotten to people,'' Pacelle said. "This isn't medical research. You can't argue that sacrificing these animals could save people's lives someday.''
I hope the bastard gets what's coming to him.
