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And I also want to address another quote from the Joan, Maria, Lorraine or whoever you are which pretty much sums up why I couldn’t disagree with you more: you call someone like Michael Vick a “monster.”

He’s a monster? Don’t you think that’s just a little bit of a cop-out in seeing things in the vacuum as you suggest me of doing…when you basically just step back and say “well, he’s a monster…he’s just an anomaly with no rhyme or reason so better to just lock him up.” When boys and men shoot up schools, we call them “monsters.” When men rape and murder women, we call them the same. I’m not saying that these men aren’t scum or don’t deserve to rot in jail…but it’s easy to drop the “m” label on someone like Vick and a lot harder to look at society in such a way that is 100% responsible in creating a culture for these “monsters” to thrive and go without being called out.

For another example, let’s take Barry Bonds. This man has been emotionally and physically abusive with an ex-girlfriend, said some extremely racist and sexist things over the course of his career and what’s everyone talking about ? Whether the man took steroids and HGH. All the sportspages and water-cooler talk is about how fake his numbers are and then how bad of an example he is to kids because (gasp) kids are going to start taking steroids and die in the gym! Well, yet again we have zero mention of his grabbing his ex-girlfriend by the throat and threatening to kill her if she ever left him.

Or, you know, it’s just one person who decided to try and slam me by pretending to be three different people (one of which is an M.D.!). (IP logs, one of the perks of running your own blog.)

But anyways, i’m not going to delete any of the three comments because while you’re making up people (and credentials) to try and pad your argument, you still have an argument to make and the one that struck me the most was the last one. I understand how you could have gotten that I am telling folks that x cause is greater than y cause and y cause is greater than z cause which means that z cause isn’t a cause to really back. And while it’s certainly understandable to get that suggestion from my post, that’s not exactly what I mean. Do I think that domestic violence is more important of a cause than cruelty to animals? Yes. Do I think that people who are passionate about animal rights are all ignorant idiots who don’t know how to prioritize their causes? Well, no. My comment was meant to be a general criticism about our culture as, if you’ve been following any of the stupid things male athletes do in the world, it basically tells the world that domestic violence isn’t as important or newsworthy of a story as dogfighting.

And to respond to the comment about animal cruelty and the connection between that and abusive behavior that goes beyond animals…I’m sure this is true. But if that is the case, then why don’t I hear media outlets or the protestors specifically talking about such a connection between men’s abuse of animals and men’s abuse of women? They don’t mention it because the focus is solely on the lives of the animals. I think it’s also interesting that you make that sort of comment when Michael Vick, as far as I know, hasn’t been charged with beating his wife/girlfriend/whoever (he was accused of giving a woman an STI, however). It doesn’t take but a second to see dozens and dozens of male athletes in every realm of sport (but particularly football and baseball) who beat their wives and girlfriends…they’re doing it right now when you’re theorizing something along the lines of: “well, we should punish the hell outta these guys because they’re likely to beat their wives.” Where’s the attention and where’s the spotlight on the guys out there making millions of dollars who have been charged, arrested, convicted multiple times for sexual assault and DV?

Most people who abuse animals eventually move onto abusing people or will participate in some sadistic activity which carries over into their daily lives. Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy all tortured and killed animals before (and sometimes after) they abused and killed their human victims. Psychologists consider animal abuse a huge red flag when they see it in a patient. Men’s violence against women is certainly a carryover from such behavior. I do not believe that one can judge society in a vacuum. If you haven’t read the indictment, I suggest that you do.

I do not think that people prioritize injustices. People due to their own backgrounds have different passions. If not, we would all be the same. The fact that there are people outraged over dogfighting in no way means they do not care about other cruelties and injustices. In fact, these are often the most sensitive and caring people. I suggest that we need caring, sensitive people to offset those I will refer to in a non-psychiatric way, monsters. I would not pity Vick’s mother too much. I have been told by an attorney that she is in this, and I quote “up to her ass.”