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Cook County Sheriff's police have arrested three people allegedly involved in a dogfighting ring based at a home that also serves as a day-care facility in west suburban Maywood. The sheriff's department Animal Crimes Unit found a dog with its eye ripped out, a dog with a leg twisted backward and a dog with its lower extremities nearly ripped off during a Tuesday raid, according to a release. Nine dogs were undergoing surgery and rehabilitation Wednesday. The gruesome scene at three Maywood homes was made even more harrowing by the presence of a licensed day-care operation, Sheriff Tom Dart stated...

Michael Vick's dog fighting was hideous, but what would you say to a blood sport that features animal combatants that are subjected to electrocution, burning and near drowning? Even more amazing, contestants fighting their animals are as young as 12! NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the comic within this thread. Thanks a bunch!

Disgraced quarterback Michael Vick declared Sunday that he really "cares" about animals. He says he wept in disgust over his own cruelty to animals while serving time for running a bloody dogfighting ring. And yes, he also found God in prison. Treading the well-worn path of career revival, Vick went on CBS' "60 Minutes" pledging to devote himself to teaching kids from poor backgrounds to be kind to animals. "When I was in prison, I was disgusted, you know, because of what I let happen to those animals. I could've put a stop to it," he said. "And that was...

Michael Vic has been signed by the Philadelphia Eagles.

The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it will review the case of a Virginia man whose federal conviction in Pittsburgh for selling dog-fighting videos was overturned by an appeals court. Robert J. Stevens of Pittsville, Va., in 2005 became the first defendant ever convicted of a 1999 law prohibiting the sale of materials depicting animal cruelty. Some of the videos showed pit bulls fighting one another as well as attacking hogs.

The Supreme Court agreed today to take up an unusual free-speech case to decide whether the government can make it a crime to sell or own videos portraying dog fighting or other acts of animal cruelty. All 50 states have laws against animal cruelty, and a decade ago, Congress made it illegal to sell or possess photos or videos of animals being maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed. The aim was to combat an underground trade in videos that showed dogs fighting or mauling other animals. The law included exceptions for depictions with serious religious, scientific or artistic value. Last...

"While she was an officer with the Omaha Police Department, Abbie Cornett would occasionally run across the remnants of a dogfighting operation and the various items used to run it."

Former NFL star quarterback Michael Vick has pleaded guilty to a state dogfighting charge in Virginia in a bid to make him eligible for early release from jail.

When football superstar Michael Vick pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to run a dogfighting operation, we knew he had kept about 50 pit bulls on his 15-acre property in rural Surry County. We knew the dogs were chained to car axles near wooden hovels for shelter. And we knew the dogs that didn't fight were beaten, shot, hanged, electrocuted or drowned. But we didn't know their names. Headlines described the nameless dogs as "menacing." Some animal rights groups called for the "ticking time bombs" to be euthanized as soon as Vick's case was closed and they were no longer...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores more Sunday, a governor said, in what appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Officials said the attack apparently targeted a prominent militia commander who had stood up against the Taliban. He died in the attack. Several hundred people — including Afghan militia leaders — had gathered to watch the event on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar. Witnesses reported gunfire from bodyguards after the blast; it was not...

(Jan. 27) - His back resting comfortably against her chest, Hector nestles his massive canine head into Leslie Nuccio's shoulder, high-fiving pit bull paws against human hands. The big dog - 52 pounds - is social, people-focused, happy now, it seems, wearing a rhinestone collar in his new home in sunny California. But as Hector sits up, deep scars stand out on his chest, and his eyes are imploring. "I wish he could let us know what happened to him," says Nuccio, the big tan dog's foster mother. Hector ought to be dead, she knows - killed in one of...

NORFOLK, Va. - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has created a holiday e-card featuring former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who is serving a 23-month federal sentence for a dogfighting conspiracy. Vick and three co-defendants raised pit bulls and trained them for fighting at a house Vick owned in rural Surry County. Several dogs that didn’t perform well in test fights were executed. In the card, a cartoon version of Vick paces across a prison yard inside a snow globe as gun-toting guards and their barking dogs keep watch. He’s wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and football helmet...

Five Atlanta Falcons players have been fined a total of $47,500 by the NFL for uniform violations that stemmed from demonstrations of their support for banished quarterback Michael Vick during the team's loss to the New Orleans Saints on Dec. 10. Several hours before the game, Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for his role in an illegal dogfighting ring that was centered on property he owned in Virginia. Cornerbacks DeAngelo Hall and Chris Houston, wide receiver Roddy White and tight end Alge Crumpler each were fined $10,000. Wide receiver Joe Horn was fined $7,500. It is not...

RICHMOND, Va. — Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit bulls. The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback could have been sentenced up to five years by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Vick, who turned himself in Nov. 19 in anticipation of his sentence, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison suit. After Vick apologized to the court and his family, Hudson told him: "You need to apologize to the millions of young people who looked up to you." "Yes, sir," Vick answered. Vick acknowledged he...

Vick given a 23 month sentence. Plus 3 years of probation. Breaking.

Federal investigators are looking into connections between trained fighting dogs bred by a man found shot to death in rural North Carolina and the dogfighting operation headed by suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick. The sheriff investigating the North Carolina killing said he plans to pursue links between the dogfighting groups to see if they can answer any questions in the unsolved homicide. But for now, federal investigators are the ones searching the shooting victim's records for more evidence that might implicate Vick and other members of Bad Newz Kennels in interstate dogfighting, the sheriff said. (snip) "Everybody we've talked to...

After long search, football star finds Jesus “hangin’ out” in courthouse restroom Michael Vick trades up! RICHMOND, VA – They say all dogs go to heaven. Well, after punching more than his share of canine tickets to paradise, Michael Vick seems to have finally found a little salvation for himself. After pleading guilty to federal dogfighting charges last month, the world heard Michael Vick proclaim his newfound faith in Christ. “I found Jesus,” Vick told reporters outside the courthouse. “And turned my life over to God.” What most people don’t know is that Vick had actually been looking for Jesus...

Michael Cook | Friday, 31 August 2007 The crimes of Michael Vick When dogs die in Virginia, there's a media frenzy. When patients die in New Orleans, there's silence. NFL quarterback Michael Vick faces 12 to 18 months in jail and the ruin of his brilliant career with the Atlanta Falcons -- for killing six or eight pit bulls and running a dogfighting operation in Virginia. "Barbaric". "Reprehensible". "Odious". The media was outraged. Even a remorseful Michael Vick sniffled that it was "a terrible thing". The leading animal rights groups, the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment...

As someone who once lived in the heart of Newport News, Va., and, in fact, in Michael Vick's school district, I was amused to hear Whoopi Goldberg's assessment that dogfighting is endemic to the Deep South and the sophisticates of our urban jungles do not understand. Vick's supporters sometimes appear to want it both ways. One day he is from the mean streets of Newport News and the next day he is from the Deep South. I happened to live on one of those mean streets of Newport News, and not once did I ever have to dodge bullets after...

Dear Ms. Whoopi Goldberg, don't tell me that torturing animals (dog-fighting) -- "hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground" -- is an integral part of Southerners' "cultural upbringing." I've lived in the Deep South for about 5 years, visited family there many times, and vacationed there more times than I can remember. My experiences? Good, decent people, and beautiful cities, countryside, and beaches. So how did this dog-fighting controversy get started? Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was busted red-handed running a chamber of horrors for canines. Not only was he fighting dogs, but torturing them...