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Byrd blasts dogfighting as 'barbaric'
By Mannix Porterfield
THE REGISTER-HERALD (BECKLEY, W.V.)
BECKLEY, W.Va, —
Pro footballer Michael Vick inspired Sen. Robert C. Byrd to a stunning rebuke Thursday of dogfighting, an illegal activity the West Virginia lawmaker branded as "barbaric, brutal and cruel."
A dog owner himself, Byrd shied from direct comment on the Atlanta Falcons quarterback's legal troubles, reminding Senate colleagues he has been accused, not convicted.
Vick faces a July 26 hearing in a federal courtroom in Virginia on charges that he sponsored a vicious dogfighting operation on land he owned in Surry County, Va.
Although outlawed in all 50 states and at the federal level, Byrd said the practice isn't a sport, but an appalling abuse of animals who rip the flesh off one another while spectators plunk down bets as high as $50,000.
"It is a brutal, sadistic event motivated by barbarism and cruelty," said Byrd, who made his comments on the Senate floor.
"One is left wondering — who are the real animals, the creatures inside or outside the ring?"
While dogfighting hasn't been a state issue, West Virginia lawmakers last winter were asked by the Humane Society to turn cockfighting into a felony, but such a bill never was taken up by a House committee where it was designated.
Byrd described dogfighting as a matter of depravity, saying the so-called "sport" translates into a multimillion-dollar industry that thrives in 40,000 illegal operations across the country.
Undercover agents have discovered wounded dogs with ripped ears, shredded lips, genitals dangling from their scarred bodies, eyes closed shut with swelling and "faces so riddled with punctures so severe that they were barely able to breathe," Byrd said.
Survivors of such canine bloodfests typically succumb within days, even hours, of blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion or infection, Byrd said in his floor speech.
Motivating them to fight entails starvation and beatings, and the presence of smaller animals, such as cats or rabbits to prompt the killing nature, he said, and the post-fight effects reaches far beyond the rings.
"There are cases of dogs trained to kill which have broken loose and mauled human beings to death," Byrd said.
Children exposed to dogfighting are more readily inclined to accept aggressive behavior and this manifests itself in violent attitudes and actions, the senator said.
Mannix Porterfield writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.
