Perfect Bodies Revisited

In Perfect Bodies Only, Please, I wrote a piece on how people with disabilities aren’t entirely welcomed within mainstream professional sports, instead in many cases effectively being forced into segregated participation by being barred from using those tools that give them the same level of participation able-bodied players have.

In it, I noted that professional sports seems to focus on appearances.

Today I watched a segment on CNN’s website that I think shows just how far professional sports can go to maintain those appearances and continue to make money¹.

Now, normally I have little time for animal “rights” people, since most of them appear to be either insane pseudo terrorists (ALF, BUAV, SHAC, Lobster Liberation Front), or think the lives of the hamsters that go into making the medication keeping me alive are more important than mine (PETA).

However, I share the outrage expressed by the protesters about Michael Vick being allowed to return to the NFL.

Michael who?

For those of you who’ve been living in that cave in recent years again, Vick is an NFL quarterback who pled guilty to interstate charges relating to dog fighting in 1997, and was given 23 months in prison for it.

When he was released, his old team wanted nothing more to do with him, but he was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009.

Now back to the whole “appearances” thing – Professional sportsmen, for whatever reason, are looked up to, considered role models, and generally have an extremely high profile.  Their endorsement deals are so lucrative because the products they endorse realize their exposure goes sky-high as a result.

So, what the frak was the NFL thinking by reinstating this guy to play???

I believe the message the NFL has effectively endorsed has become “You can abuse animals, profit from the gambling, get caught, do less than 2 years, but as a professional sportsman you’re too big to allow to fail and so we’ll let you back in all smiles.”

Some role model, huh?

States Of Mind

Now I’m not one to believe in psychobabble, but I have to wonder just how long Michael Vick has had a liking for the torture, maiming, and killing of dogs.

The psychobabblers say that one of the first indications of a psychopath is the killing of small animals, and it’s hard for me to think of dog fighting as being enjoyed by anyone other than people with a taste for blood and guts.

One of the known warning signs of certain psychopathologies, including anti-social personality disorder, also known as psychopathic personality disorder, is a history of torturing pets and small animals, a behavior known as zoosadism. According to the New York Times, “[t]he FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appears in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders.^[45] “A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one patient who had murdered a young boy.”^[45] Robert K. Ressler, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s behavioral sciences unit, studied serial killers and noted,”Murderers like this (Jeffrey Dahmer) very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids.”^[46]

Cruelty to animals is one of the three components of the Macdonald triad, indicators of violent antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. According to the studies used to form this model, cruelty to animals is a common (but not with every case) behavior in children and adolescents who grow up to become serial killers and other violent criminals.

It has also been found that animal cruelty in children is frequently committed by children who have witnessed or been victims of abuse themselves. In two separate studies cited by the Humane Society of the United States roughly one-third of families suffering from domestic abuse indicated that at least one child had hurt or killed a pet.^[47]

Source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruelty_to_animals#Psychological_disorders

How many kids are going to come away from this with the belief that it’s OK to maim, torture, and kill animals purely for sport and pleasure?  After all, they’ve been taught a life-lesson that doing so has zero practical consequences with the Vick incident.

In 15 years will we hear of another Bundy, and they’ll point right back at Vick’s actions and how lenient the consequences of them, as the role model for their formative years?

Listening to the Vick supporters in the CNN video, I’m not too sure it will take 15 years before we hear of something like it, to be honest.

I wonder how much of Vick’s “charitable” work was funded using the profits from his dog-fighting operation.  It’s hard to tell if his six mansions, the ten cars, and his supporting friends and family were funded by his dog-fighting, or by the ridiculous amounts of money he was raking in legally from his “job”.

In reinstating Vick, has the NFL done almost as much damage to animal welfare as the groups listed at the start of this article?

What about the Philadelphia Eagles – are they really that hard-up for wins?  Maybe they’re hoping Vick will take over training their team?  After all, he did a bang up job training his dogs.

There’d just be a few downsides if they lost.

Professional sports.  People with disabilities not-so-welcome, but animal abusers – step right on up!

What great examples of “perfect specimens” for society.

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