Dogfighting Starts With The Young: Dog Files Opinion

Max with my nephews, Anthony & Christopher. They are all much older now. (How time flies!)

So I just watched a clip from the Michael Vick interview on Piers Morgan last night where he talked about when he first saw dogfighting as a young child. (You can watch it at the end of this post.)

This opinion piece is not about how evil Michael Vick is. I’ve written those before. Everyone has had years to write about the horrible things they wished would befall Vick. Check out the comments below, I’m sure there will be some doozy’s down there.

No, this is about looking into the abyss and seeing nothing back. Or I should say, seeing into the eyes of a dogfighter and seeing a complete lack of empathy.

That’s what I see when I watch Vick talk about dogfighting. A face totally devoid of emotion. And though he is an adult and I blame him for every single rotten, cruel thing he’s ever done to dogs, I look past that in search of an answer. That’s just how I am. How do we solve this dogfighting problem?

And he answered it in the segment I’m posting here.

As a child, he learned that strange dogs were meant to be feared.

If you’ve ever met me in person and the conversation turned to the dogfighting epidemic, I always had this one story that I’d tell.

When I first adopted Max, I lived in a ritzy, well-to-do town in New Jersey called South Orange. I didn’t have much money, but I learned early that renting allowed you to live almost anywhere you wanted.

My apartment was on the border with Orange, New Jersey. Now anyone that lives in Jersey will tell you that Orange is one tough town. When someone in South Orange was robbed or their car was stolen, the perpetrator was almost always spotted running back to Orange.

Every day, I would take Max out for a long walk. I would circle my apartment and when I walked down South Orange streets the neighboring children would yell, “PUPPY!” and come running up to meet and pet Max.

But when I walked down streets in Orange, the children would 100 percent of the time, run in fear to the other side of the street. And we are talking Max here! Not a big, muscular tough-looking dog, but the hound in the Dog Files Logo.

Now, of course I’m sure this isn’t with all kids from tough towns, but as I said, no child in that town ever came up to pet Max. And I lived there for three years.

Years later, when I started the Dog Files and was working on the Pit Proud Dog Files Episode, it dawned on me. Those kids that ran in fear of Max were the perfect candidates to be future dog fighting. They lived in a world where they were taught that dogs were something to fear. That you always stay away from them. They are NOT your friends, they are monsters.

And fear always leads to a lack of empathy. What is EMPATHY? Well the dictionary says it’s, “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.”

It’s having feelings for another person or animal or object. And when you have a lack of it towards dogs, it allows you to view them like they are just an object with no feelings to be used as one pleases.

I repeat, the first stage of a dogfighter begins with a lack of empathy for dogs as a child.

So what can be done? Well, although that answer is way too long for one article, I think we must institute animal awareness/empathy classes in schools. What the ‘Just Say No.’ and ‘Mothers Against Drunk Driving’ campaigns did in their respective decades we need to do with Animal Cruelty.

But if you took one thing away from this post, I’d hope you’d keep what I told you in the back of your mind. And whenever you can, let kids know how great dogs are, that they are here to be loved, cared for and respected. One child at a time is the only way we’ll defeat dogfighting, neglect and cruelty.

And if we can’t get their own parents to do it (and I really hope we can) we must do it ourselves for the sake of the hounds. After all, their future safety and happiness is in our hands!

What can YOU do to help children understand and appreciate dogs and animals in general?

Thanks!
Kenn Bell
Dog Files Creator

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Yvonne
Yvonne
12 years ago

Good post, Kenn. Here’s the thing with empathy – while a child can believe another living thing is just an object as opposed to a being with feelings, listening to a dog scream in pain, watching a dog bleed and suffer during a dog fight, requires more than a lack of empathy. It requires allowing yourself to believe it doesn’t matter. That all that matters is money. Children who learn that – who put money and their own desires totally ahead of all else, have no empathy for any other being – including other people. Michael Vick falls into that category, IMBO. He feels NOTHING for anyone but himself. He is not sorry for what he did, he is a great football player because he’s so unfeeling, and he should not be allowed to own a pet of any kind. His life is all about making money to spend on himself. IF he’s considering a dog, it’s a ploy to fool people into thinking he’s been rehabilitated. 

Kenn Bell
12 years ago
Reply to  Yvonne

Hi Yvonne, I agree completely, but I feel a lack of empathy is just the first step, then the conditioning of seeing and experiencing it begins.
Can we fight lack of empathy? I don’t know, I’m not a psychologist. But if we introduce children to animals early in their lives we can at least help.
Thanks for the comment!

Teri, Brighton, Coco and Disco

Kenn, you speak the truth, and while many of us might say ‘What can we do, we are only one person’, what you talk about is do-able by each of us. In every day, if we can spread the word of how fulfilling and rewarding loving a pet can be, either by sharing experiences with our own pets…and it’s free! Your observations of the kids in orange, the lack of emotion in Vick’s eyes and the flippant way he says ‘Well, it won’t be a Pit Bull’ speaks volumes about how important those early interactions with well loved and well socialized pets can turn a bad future into a good one.

Keri
12 years ago

He’s a lair. He probably hates that people don’t like him for what he’s done and is just wants for people to like him again. He’s not sorry for what he’s done. Never in the clip did he say that if he knew how much it hurt the dog’s he wouldn’t have done it. It seams that he’s only sorry he got caught. It’s sad but it seams now-a-days that children aren’t taught empathy for others, animal or not, they are only taught that it’s a bad thing to do. But that does not excuse those actions.

Mugsinto
Mugsinto
12 years ago

Don’t care what his excuse is — he should have been in jail for years.

Carolle Kennedy
12 years ago

he is a fucktard animal hater,to do what he has done to dogs,is disgusting and no amount of excuses works for me ,he is evil fucker

Jazperr
Jazperr
12 years ago

Hi. I’m an animal advocate, proud pitbull mom (and two others- chocolate lab and Cane Corso) and also a junior high teacher. Even though I see these kids for only an hour or so out of their day, I know I can be a huge influence in their lives. As such, I do my best to show the human- animal connection, and how animals really are sentient beings. I’m lucky that I can do this through what I teach, which is reading and writing. When a student asks me where to get low cost spay/ neuter done (I volunteer with a group that does this, and share the message freely) or when a family chooses to adopt or foster a shelter pet, I know that I have had a positive impact. As teachers, we do not often get to see an “end product” but when I know that a child sees animals as members of the family, I know I have done a good job.

samedayessay com
12 years ago

Nice interesting article! thanks fot the post!

Lore Harmison
Lore Harmison
12 years ago

As a Pitbull owner I have to say, my Julia has more empathy and compassion in her eyes than
Vick did in the interview. Same arrogant, flip mouth. No Vick, you have not changed, you cannot fool people, you are just a miserable human being who hates that you have been caught. . End of story.

Locox4
Locox4
12 years ago

I enjoyed reading your article, but after viewing Vick’s interview, he contradicts himself saying he loved dogs & hid HIS dogs as a child and took care of them with his own money because his mom wouldn’t let him have a dog in the house, BUT then he blames his love & excitement of dog fighting  on the fact that he was 8 when he saw his first dog fight. He thought the fighting was exciting, but cruel as well. I think he is trying to find an excuse for his evil behavior. Someone must have told him to say he did what he did because when he was 8 he saw a dog fight. Many people see things as children that are wrong and evil, but don’t blame their behavior because of it. That is ridiculous! I don’t believe this man has empathy or any other good human feelings!! If anyone ever allows him to own or be around any dogs in the future, they are just as bad as he is.

Mia
Mia
12 years ago

I like the fact that he corrected himself and all but I still cant forget. He KILLED them when the where too week. And when he kept on doing it  did he hear about animal cruilty. Its EVERYWHERE. I dont understand how he kept on doing it.

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