Via People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

Tell the Atlanta Falcons to Punt Animal Abusers off the Team!

In a raid conducted between April 25 and 26, local and state law enforcement officials found 70 dogs—including at least 60 pit bulls and many dogs who reportedly were neglected, scarred, and malnourished—on Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick’s rural Surry County, Va., property. Some of the animals evidently bear scars and injuries, and paraphernalia commonly associated with dogfighting—including a “rape stand”—are also said to have been found on the property.

Humane officers and other law enforcement officials routinely break up illegal dogfighting rings and confiscate dogfighting paraphernalia, including treadmills used to build the dogs’ endurance and drugs used either to numb pain caused by injuries or to “jazz up” the dogs. They also often find mesh bags, which are used to suspend kittens, rabbits, puppies, and other small animals above the dogs to encourage a “fighting spirit.” Dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia and is a felony offense in all but two states—Idaho and Wyoming—where it is a misdemeanor. Dogs who survive these fights often sustain serious injuries, such as broken bones and crushed cartilage. Many suffer and die from blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion, or infection hours or days after a fight.

We need your help to tell the Atlanta Falcons that someone who allows this kind of neglect and abuse to occur doesn’t belong on their football team. Please write to the Falcons owner to ask that Vick be immediately suspended pending the outcome of the investigation and that if animals on his property are found to have been neglected or used for fighting he be released from the team.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts peta people for the ethical treatment of animals dog canine animal fighting dog fighting Atlanta Falcons Michael Vick Surry County Virginia animal abuse cruelty to animals animal cruelty