Vick Case Affects Law Enforcement and Politics

Crack Down on the Blood Sport

In case you hadn’t heard enough about the high profile case of Michael Vick, the professional football star who is facing criminal dog fighting charges, he’s back on the front page after the NFL announced his suspension from the league yesterday. While some of us may tire of hearing about a foolish and cruel celebrity, all of the attention seems to be doing some good in combating the dog fighting rings. Law enforcement is increasingly cracking down on participants in the illegal blood sport.
Based on the data compiled by pet-abuse.com, 47 dog fighting charges had been made from January 2007 through June 2007. Since Vick’s indictment on July 17th, pet-abuse.com has reported 22 allegations (the Humane Society claims 25 on its site). That’s roughly a three fold increase in cases per month.

Political Fallout

With the 2008 election on the horizon, every opportunity to get an edge is being seized by both parties. Now the Democrats are trying to link House Republicans to Michael Vick’s actions by pointing to their voting on the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act (on March 25, 2007 the House overwhelmingly passed the bill, and soon after the President signed it into law. This legislation upgrades penalties for illegal transportation of fighting dogs—one of the crimes Vick has been charged with—from misdemeanor to felony penalties). The Dems are calling attention to the fact that thirty seven Republicans voted against the bill, and only two Democrats. Most opponents defend their vote by saying they oppose more federal regulations on states.

Whether or not you think it’s a stretch to say the opposing politicians “gave a free pass” to dog fighters, it would be interesting to look at a map of dog fighting incidents and see how it compares to a map of where the opposition votes came from.

Here are the nay votes mapped:

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And here is a map of dog fighting incidents from January 2007 through June 2007 by county:

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While dog fighting seems more prevalent in the South and Midwest, the votes in opposition to the bill are regionally diverse.