Posted on Wed, Aug. 26, 2009
JUST ONE DAY before the Eagles met with animal-rights groups as part of their community service related to their hiring of Michael Vick, a bust of a dogfighting ring on Sunday suggests just how much work the Eagles, Vick, and law-enforcement personnel have ahead of them to have any effect on this sickening trend.
Unfortunately, dogfighting is on the rise in the state, with the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reporting 400 investigations so far this year - almost twice as many as all of 2008.
Without serious increases in enforcement budgets, it's hard to imagine how to reverse this trend.
People who breed dogs to tear one another apart for fun and profit may not be beyond redemption, but it's hard to imagine convincing them it's wrong without much harsher punishments for their cruelty.
If a few years in prison aren't enough, we might consider sentencing those convicted to a few nights in the big cat complex at the Philadelphia Zoo and see how they like the feeling of being ravaged.
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