Mainstream Condemnation for HSUS

Over at the Pet Connection blog, the always readable, compelling, and diplomatic Gina Spadafori has crafted an emotional body-slam for those who are buying into Michael Vick’s post-dogfighting spin cycle.

Spadafori is at the North American Veterinary Conference, and she’s just seen a session on how to determine what happened to animals by looking at their partially decomposed remains. Exhibit “A” was a photo of one of Vick’s “vicktims” (as she puts it).

We won’t reprint the whole piece here, but one paragraph bears repeating:

Forget? Forgive? Not in my lifetime. And shame on those who banked the checks to spin this for a man who should never be trusted to care for his own children, much less be allowed to keep another dog to pose prettily for pictures to complete the narrative of redemption.

Always diplomatic. But the reference to “check-banking” isn’t lost on us.

Spadafori is right in observing that Vick’s cruel crime spree “has been largely forgiven and is well on the way to being forgotten.” Vick, a karma train-wreck waiting to happen if there ever was one, will appear in next weekend’s NFL Pro Bowl but has otherwise receded from public view since his team lost in the first round of the playoffs.

But we won’t forget here. And unless the Humane Society of the United States publicly returns the Philadelphia Eagles’ $50,000 check, the $10,200 it collected by auctioning off Vick’s press conference notes, and any other money it’s raised off of the Michael Vick saga, we won’t let the group off the hook.