Shut Up, PETA
Let me make it clear that I think Michael Vick should be suspended. Let me also make it clear that I take the obvious position that dog fighting is wrong. But when I read that very predictably PETA was getting involved I realized this whole thing couldn’t possibly end rationally. The organization that once wrote the NFL demanding that the Green Bay Packers change their name to the Pickers (as in vegetable pickers) or the Six-Packers (forgetting that DUI in this country is rampant and arguably worse than a couple of fur coats) will hound the league with emails, phone calls, threatened boycotts until it either takes a rash action or the media gets whipped up into a frenzy and forces the NFL’s hand.
This situation is similar to when Martha Burk was protesting Augusta National. It isn’t that she wasn’t right. The problem is that when you try very publicly to force an organization to “do the right thing” it either does it grudgingly and haltingly or it doesn’t do it just to spite the people who are protesting. When PETA pushes the NFL against the wall, it is very easy to give Vick the wrong punishment. If you find you punish him harshly and he’s found innocent, what do you do? If you give him a slap on the wrist to protect from that possibility and he’s found guilty, you can’t punish him twice. If you resist and hide behind “innocent until proven guilty” there are an awful lot of players who are wondering how they got punished before their trials. You lose credibility in your own system.
Now PETA has changed the time table and is making sure there is no good ending to this. PETA, please mind your own business. The authorities got their guy. If he’s guilty he’s going to jail. Other people who are arrested get to keep doing their jobs while awaiting trial (though obviously others do not). Just wait. Leave the NFL alone. And let this sort itself out on a reasonable time table for a change.
-DW
[...] as I predictedwhen PETA got involved everyone has lost their collective minds. In an effort to distance [...]
August 25th, 2007 at 5:46 pm