Animal activists are up in arms over the news that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and convicted dog fighter Michael Vick is launching his own line of clothing to be sold exclusively at Modell's Sporting Goods stores along the East Coast. Vick will be promoting the new line with Meet & Greet events at selected Modell's stores in Philadelphia. The picture above was posted to Modell's Facebook page around 3:00pm EST on Tuesday and has resulted in a non stop barrage of angry comments, threats to boycott their stores and requests for Modell executives to cancel Vick's appearances. Many users posted pictures of rehabiliated dogs rescued from Vick's Bad Newz Kennel as well as graphic images of injured dogs who had been removed from other dogfighting operations. One protester has created a Facebook fan page entitled "
Boycott Modell's for their involvement with Michael Vick". The page currently has 79 likes. It does not appear that the mainstream news has caught wind of this story yet as a Google News search does not turn up anything more than the announcement of Vick's new clothing line.
The decline of Michael Vick's public image began in April of 2007 when his cousin Davon Boddie was arrested outside a nightclub for possession of marijuana with intent to sell. Boddie gave his home address to police as 1915 Moonlight Road, Smithfield, Virginia. This property was owned by Michael Vick at the time. Police conducted a search of the property as part of the drug investigation and stumbled upon all the makings of a dog fighting operation. They found blood splatter, pry bars and dog breeding tools, among other items. Along with animal control officers, they removed a total of 66 dogs from the property.
Disturbing details of abuse and murder of dogs at the hands of Michael Vick and his business associates Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips came out as the investigation progressed. The US Department of Agriculture documented this cruelty in a 17 page report released in 2008. The report revealed that "Vick, Peace and Phillips hung approximately three dogs who did not perform well in a "rolling session," which indicates the readiness of a dog to fight". Also according to the report, the three men hung the dogs "by placing a nylon cord over a 2 X 4 that was nailed to two trees located next to the big shed. They also drowned approximately three dogs by putting the dogs' heads in a five gallon bucket of water." After failing a polygraph test, Vick recanted his original statement saying he was not involved in the actual killing of the dogs and admitted to his participation.
The Surry County grand jury charged Michael Vick with one count of unlawfully torturing and killing dogs and one count of promoting dogfights. Both are felony charges. Vick took a plea offer from federal prosecutors, pleading guilty to federal conspiracy charges and avoiding additional dogfighting charges. He was sentenced to 23 months in jail for his participation.
UPDATE 7/18/12 The "Boycott Modell's for their involvement with Michael Vick" Facebook page is up to 484 likes and growing. Three similar pages calling for the boycott of Modell's have also sprung up as well as a Facebook group and two petitions.
Change.org Petition To Modell's CEO Mitchell Modell:
Stop Modell's from Selling Michael Vick's New Product Line
Forcechange.com Petition To Modell's CEO Mitchell Modell:
Stop Modell's Sporting Goods from Selling Michael Vick 's New Clothing Line
For more on Michael Vick and Modell's click
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