Michael Vick has sold the home he owned in Surry County, Va.
Maybe he should buy a ranch in Wyoming.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback is under investigation by legal authorities in Virginia – and scrutiny by the NFL commissioner – because of accusations that the lovely white main house and the foreboding five black outbuildings on his 15-acre property were used for dogfighting. A warrant to search the grounds for the remains of as many as 30 pit bulls has not been executed, because of vague language, by the county attorney Tuesday. Vick has claimed he was not involved in dogfighting and knew nothing of the activities at the home where his cousin lived.
But an anonymous source said on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” over the weekend that Vick was “one of the heavyweights” in dogfighting. An e-mailer in Georgia offered to send me video he said he took of Vick at a dogfight. I gave him my cellphone number. He told me he sent the video, but I didn’t receive it and never heard from him again.
Virtually all the national newspaper stories about the sordid Vick affair state that dogfighting is “a felony in 48 states and a misdemeanor in Idaho and Wyoming.”
Why Wyo?
It seems odd, on first reaction, that our friendly neighbors to the north would treat vicious dogfights lightly.
But Wyoming House Bill 0049, which would have modified state law to make the second offense of dogfighting a felony (with up to two years imprisonment and a fine of $5,000), died in February.
State Sen. Jayne Mockler (D-Laramie County), a co-sponsor of the bill, blamed state Senate Majority Leader John Hines (R-Campbell County) and “the culture of Wyoming.”
(The Idaho legislature also has rejected attempts to strengthen its dogfighting misdemeanor law.)
The Wyoming bill passed in the House by a vote of 35-25 and cleared committee in the Senate 5-0, but was “placed on general file” by Hines and never reached the Senate floor for a vote before the session ended. Mockler said a similar bill wouldn’t be considered until 2009, and she is pessimistic that it ever would be passed.
“I keep saying the word “culture,” but I was born and raised in Wyoming, and I don’t think the culture is to protect animals’ rights or prevent dogfighting,” Mockler said. “Ranchers don’t want to be ordered to stop branding cattle, and a whole lot of people in this state feel they have a right to train their dogs to be vicious.”
There has been a sense of citizens’ independence, historically, in Wyoming. “It’s not against the law to have a gun in the state Capitol (in Cheyenne) as long as you don’t use it,” Mockler said.
Hines couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. He has control over which bills will be discussed and voted on in the Senate.
“We knew he wouldn’t send it to the full Senate. John is a conservative,” said Mockler, who has served in the House of Representatives, then the Senate, since 1993. Hines, a rancher in Gillette, has been in the Legislature since 1985.
“There was an effort to regulate these he-man (Ultimate Fighting) competitions, but that failed, too. People don’t care if human beings or dogs fight,” Mockler said.
Yet, she doesn’t believe that dogfighting is a problem in Wyoming. “Just because it happens in Colorado doesn’t mean that it happens here.”
Got me.
“I’ve never seen or heard of a dogfight in Cheyenne, but it should be a felony.”
Pit bull fighters probably won’t be rushing to Wyoming as a result of the recent rash of “misdemeanor” publicity. The “sport” is most popular in my native region, although, as a kid, I only saw mongrels gnaw on each other, in a spontaneous fight back of the barn, at relatives’ farms in Mississippi.
Various sources and informants have alleged Vick bought dog food and “syringes” in stores near his Surry County home, has owned dozens of pit bulls, attended dogfights dating to 2000 (when he played at Virginia Tech) and made bets of thousands of dollars on the outcomes of the deadly fights.
The quarterback hasn’t been charged with anything, but recently said, after meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell, he is altering his lifestyle away from the field.
But Vick, who had all the potential and promotion in the world, has seen his career and his image go to the dogs.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
