I agree. He screwed up bad. But he did his time, and is outwardly trying hard to make amends. If he gets a dog, that’ll probably be the best treated animal you’ve ever seen. But some ninnies will insist on 50 years of punishment.
The key is if he has really repented. If he has, it’s stupid and useless to insist he keep being punished. Treated fairly, he could be a good advocate to help stop that culture he was involved in.
That's my take on the situation as well.
It's always been a pet peeve of mine to see how ex-cons are treated in our society. It's no wonder that the recidivism rate is so high once they get out of jail. Despite the fact that they did their time, nobody seems to want to give them a fair shake.
Now I'm no bleeding heart - if a person is deemed unfit to live in society, than throw away the key and let them rot in prison for life. But if we are going to let the rest of them out at some point, I believe we are obliged to let them return to society with full rights. That means they should be able to vote, own guns, and do anything else a regular citizen can do. Otherwise, why let them out at all?
No dog should be allowed anywhere near Michael Vick. There is a new book on the rehabilitation of the dogs that survived and the tales and photos are horrific.
For someone like me, who just adopted an 11 year old dog (sweet as hell) from the ASPCA where she was brought after spending 5 months in a darkened garage with very little food and no vet visits, I have no patience with animal cruelty. When Mr. Vick’s daughter grows up she can get her own dog.
Joel Steinberg has now paid for his crime. Maybe we should allow him to adopt another little girl. I’m sure he learned his lesson real good.