[Los Feliz Slim]

I'm a dog lover, and I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that this guy's life is completely ruined by all of this. At first glance, it does seem disproportionate. Mostly I think it's because he has so much more to lose than some random dude who's organizing dog fights. Your typical dog fighter probably has already done time and doesn't have a day job (I imagine), so getting busted and losing "everything" doesn't mean that much. It doesn't make what Vick did any worse than somebody else, but it makes it so much more colossally stupid it's unbelievable.

Also, remember that if the allegations are true, it's not like Vick went out one day and attended a dog fight and now it's all coming crashing down. If I understand the allegations correctly he bought property dedicated to the purpose of dog fighting, had people on salary managing the day-to-day of the operation, personally bought and killed dogs in the practice of the operation, provided all the money including that used for the gambling side of it, etc etc etc. To do all of this over an extended period of time and not either stop because of the morality of it OR because of the risk to your career is mind-boggling.

Because of this I think what he did IS way worse than having a few too many and driving a car, for instance. Probably 5,000,000 people did that this weekend. Also, Ray Lewis wasn't convicted of anything. If he had been, things would be different for him (and again, I'm assuming that Vick is doing time). If you want to argue that he's been convicted by the media and the public without getting his fair day in court, so be it. But prior to being acquitted I think Lewis was getting a pretty fair share of heat.