Thank you for these. That elephant one... wow. I had never heard of it until today. How jarring and sad.

Stephanie:
Thanks so much for your update on the VICK'S Pitbull Dogs!
I am the mommy of a 9 year old pitbull boy that I adore - he is my baby!  He is actually our family's baby - we spoil him to death!
He sleeps on my daughter's bed everynight, though we bought him a very nice futon, he prefers to sleep with my daughter!
We got him when he was only six weeks old, and my husband did not want to keep him, because he was afraid about all the negative things he heard about pitbulls - he was even afraid someone would take us to court and we would loose our house over our pitbull.  But my son fought to keep him and dropped from his Senior Year of High School (just three months away from graduation), because my husband had warned him, he would take our pitbull to the shelter when he was in school.  My son stayed home and did not let our pitbull out of his sight - it is nine years after, and our pitbull still with us and we adore him, and my son gratuated after all! 
I was so horrified and cried when I heard about Vick's pitbulls - I could not believe such inhumane acts and the abuse these poor dogs suffered!
It took a famous person like Vick to bring awareness of this horrible practice of Dog Fighting and make it illegal and punishable - I pray to god that we make it tougher and tougher everyday for anyone to abuse our loving pitbulls!
I am forever grateful to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED for dedicating one of their issues to these beautiful and loving dogs!
Ana Gergis

It is true animals are not the same thing as a cell phone or a car but legislation to change the status of domesticated animals is not the answer. First of all you have to consider the ethical argument of animal rights in a objective way. It is a moral standard that is extremely divided among the population and as much as many people love their pets such legislation will be widely seen as an infringement on individual liberties and property rights. In truth because domesticated animals are considered property such legislation can be used to violate property rights in general. As much as I despise dog fighting I can not help but realize that the legal action and legislation is the cause of the problem rather than the solution. The truth is Vick's dog is only a small portion of Pit Bull's that are treated in such horrific ways across the country despite the fact that dog fighting is a federal offense. Yet dog fighting continues, this is because the ethical divide throughout the United States as well as the economical opportunities gained through dog fighting. But since the activity is forced underground everything surrounding dog fighting is also underground to include the way fights are conducted, the training methods, and the treatment of the animals. Do to current laws the fights, training, and general treatment of the dogs are control by purely criminal elements that can easily use the currency gained from the fights to fund other criminal activities. Meanwhile the treatment of the animals are conducted without oversight to include the inhuman murder of dogs that are considered no longer useful. The reason the dogs where killed in such a barbaric fashion is because the owners did not have the knowledge or the drugs to humanly put out the dogs down and they cold not afford to take the dogs to proper facilities out of fear of arrest. I am not for the legalization for dog fighting but I understand the human benefits legalizing the practice. Dog fighters can operate in full oversight or government officials and the public, the fighting, training,and general treatment of the animals can be regulated, and the profits will be taken from criminals and can be taxed in order to better fund organizations that look for and treat mistreated animals. All of this is based on the principles of respect for individual rights and the fact that the government completely incapable of forcing ethical standards on the people.