Nice posts for attention in this thread....
Its really no surprise that Vick threw family pets in with his dogs. That shit is way too common by the "wannabee" dog fighters. To me it just shows a damned bad mean streak.
I had the opportunity to talk with someone who'd at one time been involved with quite a bit of fighting in the south and midwest not too long ago. Of course the subject of Vick came up and handling the dogs. According to this person, people who were "hardcore" never randomly matched their dogs with shit like vick did. To him a fight was serious business and there were lots and lots of money involved with weeks of careful planning and working the dogs with tires, chains, treadmills, drugs, and a whole lot more. He pretty much point blank said that he'd never risk one of his "good" dogs accidentally loosing or injuring an eye or worse yet breaking a canine tooth or getting bit in a joint which could lead to the dog being crippled in situation where there wasn't money changing hands.
Its sort of a different look at things in my mind and it sure makes sense more sense in my head (and please don't get me wrong, I am NOT condoning dog fighting in any way. To me Pitbulls make wonderful family pets, not killing machines). The dogs were matched much like boxers or MMA fighters---with one goal to make money. Thats night and day different from some sick fuck watching one dog chew another up for enjoyment. The are two different (and neither acceptable) levels of sociopath in my mind.
