Thank you for your blog post, John.

We plan to have our national PR push out shortly.

Debbie Burch, Director
Jalie's Butterflies

My dog, Shady, is a rescue pitbull that I got up in Westminster. He's such a loveable guy.

It is appalling the effort people have put into this. Animal cruelty is sad, however, it is my fervent wish that these folks would put 25% of their effort to save animals into efforts to prevent child abuse... There are offenders who have raped, sodomized and murdered children and adults who have received less attention. I guess it's just the name Michael Vick that matters...

ha-ha- leave michael vick alone-haters

Nikki - I entirely agree with your post. Unfortunately the sensationalism of animal cruelty holds much more water than the life of our children. AND THIS COMES FROM A DOG LOVER!

Why not get to the heart of the problem? Sanctuaries don't solve anything. Spaying and neutering DOES. When there are more low cost spay neuter clinics, and more education, then the horrible overpopulation problem will end.

Spay neuter rates are terribly low in many states like Virginia. Till that gets fixed, it is impossible to keep cleaning up.

(and Nikki, why don't YOU go do something about child abuse? What are YOU doing? Child abuse gets billions of dollars thrown at it every year. The animals are not so lucky)

Nikki, there is some merit in what you say. Just over the past couple of days, we've heard of four children dying in Washington and one in Baltimore due to abuse. The mayor of Washington said that the city had failed those children, but of course, we as a society have failed them.

With respect, though, it's not by any means an either/or situation when it comes to animals or children. It's possible to care deeply about both issues. I'm beginning to feel like I'm stuck in an endless loop, because I'm the one who keeps pointing out that when it comes to dog fighting, the abused dogs are only the tip of the iceberg. The dog fighting culture carries with it a whole constellation of other crimes--illegal drugs, gambling, firearms, and other assorted brutalities that weaken the fabric of society in general. In that sense, Michael Vick may have done us all a favor, as more and more people have become aware that this is going on in their town, their county, their block in the city. People who read this particular blog tend to talk more about dogs than about children because this blog's subject is pets. That doesn't mean they're not interested or that they don't care.

In Philadelphia, near City Hall, there used to be an old stone horse trough, the relic of a long-ago time when horses powered the city. It had an inscription above it that said, "A merciful man is merciful to his beasts." I think we could easily extend that to say "A merciful society is merciful to its beasts, its children, and all who are helpless or in need."

I think this is disgusting. I am beginning to wonder if this was their goal all along. PETA must be and will be stopped. They are a bunch of arogant hypocrites who could care less about the abuse of animals. Ther secret will be revealed, i.e. PETA has killed and abused animals. Check out the facts, you might be surprised. HA! HA1 PETA is probably laughing as they go to the bank. They have increased their coffers. This has never been about Vick and dog fighting. PETA saw an opportunity to obtain "property. Think about this, PETA's home site is found in Virginia as Vick's home. I could continue on and on but I am sure you get the drift.Eventually PETA and its hidden activities will be exposed.