The Mike Vick case... am I a life nit?

[gol4pro]

I knew there was something about this that was bothering me and I just figured it out. I'll preface this by saying I hate the [censored] because I absolutely love dogs, but from a legal perspective, I'm not sure this makes sense to me.

Somehow or another, the law has established a different value for the lives of various animals. That is, if it was a human fighting ring (after all, humans are animals) he would obviously get life in prison, but if it was a mosquito or ant fighting ring (although you'd never do this), nobody would give a [censored].

While I must say that I agree with this system, is the law really written this way? If so, what is the "equilibrium" animal so to speak where people start caring and you could be charged with a crime?

I guess my real question is, where in the legislation does it suggest that if you have an insect fighting ring that's fine, but if you use dogs you're [censored]?

Like I said, I'm probably just a life nit.