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Tonight, Michael Vick is expected to make his debut with the Philadelphia Eagles and throw his first pass in the NFL since his now infamous 2007 arrest fordogfighting and gambling charges.
Given the sudden surge in public interest, it's an opportune moment to mention that an estimated 40,000 Americans engage in dogfighting. It would be convenient to brand these 40,000+ people asmonsters for inflicting such unspeakable cruelty on other living, feeling, caring creatures - yet doing so only ignores the root cause. Caring about our fellowspecies doesn't require us to be unfeeling toward the plight of our fellow human beings. Compassion is not a limited resource.
Considering the number of Michael Vick fans who've frequented the site over the years, some of whom continued to stand by him even after his arrest anditeration after iteration of ugly and underwhelming signature sneakers, we considered it our responsibility to devote our resources (which, in contrast tocompassion, are decidedly limited) to a program that combats cruelty without being cruel, a program that exemplifiesempathy toward animals both human and nonhuman alike.
Today, we're thrilled to announce our support of the Humane Society in the United States (HSUS) and their innovative End Dogfighting campaign through acommunity donation of $7,000 (Vick's number x 1,000).
The End Dogfighting campaign reaches out to young people in our communities through an empowering series of educational programs. Rather than barging into acommunity in paternalist fashion and attempting a top-down, "one size fits all" approach, these programs utilize peer-based leadership from withinthe community. Developing a sense of empathy and respect, both for other creatures and for ourselves, can do far more to prevent these crimes than brutalizingoffenders after the fact as means of crude and selective retribution.
You can learn more about their efforts here: http://www.hsus.org/acf/fighting/dogfight/programs/
Check out this video of Michael Vick speaking to kids in Chicago as part of the HSUS campaign. You'll also get a peek at some of their local outreachefforts their as well.
The program is currently in Atlanta and Chicago, but will launch soon in Los Angeles.
If you want to help the program launch in LA, expand to another neighborhood in Atlanta, or come to your city, I hope you'll consider offering a donation of your own.
Also, if you live in Chicago or Atlanta and you'd like to donate dog food to the program, you could be a big help. Countless pit bulls die in shelters.Helping people care for them who might not otherwise be able to afford it can improve their lives as well as save the life of a dog that might otherwise bekilled. If you're interested, send me a PM or send an email to our staff account and I'll put you in touch with somebody at the HSUS. (I can't posttheir email address here without subjecting them to spam.)
Thanks so much for supporting our donations, everyone. As you probably know, we donate 100% of our ad revenues beyond the basic cost of hosting to charity. Ifyou participate with our advertising, even just by allowing them to load on your computer, you're helping to contribute. We're working hard to improvethe ad quality and we appreciate everyone's patience. I hope that, when you see the results in the form of these donations and the incredible work peopleare doing them, you'll consider it well worth it.
For those keeping score at home, this puts our total donations to date at over $93,000. With your help, we canbreak $100,000 in total donations by NikeTalk's 10th anniversary on December 10th!
Given the sudden surge in public interest, it's an opportune moment to mention that an estimated 40,000 Americans engage in dogfighting. It would be convenient to brand these 40,000+ people asmonsters for inflicting such unspeakable cruelty on other living, feeling, caring creatures - yet doing so only ignores the root cause. Caring about our fellowspecies doesn't require us to be unfeeling toward the plight of our fellow human beings. Compassion is not a limited resource.
Considering the number of Michael Vick fans who've frequented the site over the years, some of whom continued to stand by him even after his arrest anditeration after iteration of ugly and underwhelming signature sneakers, we considered it our responsibility to devote our resources (which, in contrast tocompassion, are decidedly limited) to a program that combats cruelty without being cruel, a program that exemplifiesempathy toward animals both human and nonhuman alike.
Today, we're thrilled to announce our support of the Humane Society in the United States (HSUS) and their innovative End Dogfighting campaign through acommunity donation of $7,000 (Vick's number x 1,000).
The End Dogfighting campaign reaches out to young people in our communities through an empowering series of educational programs. Rather than barging into acommunity in paternalist fashion and attempting a top-down, "one size fits all" approach, these programs utilize peer-based leadership from withinthe community. Developing a sense of empathy and respect, both for other creatures and for ourselves, can do far more to prevent these crimes than brutalizingoffenders after the fact as means of crude and selective retribution.
You can learn more about their efforts here: http://www.hsus.org/acf/fighting/dogfight/programs/
Check out this video of Michael Vick speaking to kids in Chicago as part of the HSUS campaign. You'll also get a peek at some of their local outreachefforts their as well.
The program is currently in Atlanta and Chicago, but will launch soon in Los Angeles.
If you want to help the program launch in LA, expand to another neighborhood in Atlanta, or come to your city, I hope you'll consider offering a donation of your own.
Also, if you live in Chicago or Atlanta and you'd like to donate dog food to the program, you could be a big help. Countless pit bulls die in shelters.Helping people care for them who might not otherwise be able to afford it can improve their lives as well as save the life of a dog that might otherwise bekilled. If you're interested, send me a PM or send an email to our staff account and I'll put you in touch with somebody at the HSUS. (I can't posttheir email address here without subjecting them to spam.)
Thanks so much for supporting our donations, everyone. As you probably know, we donate 100% of our ad revenues beyond the basic cost of hosting to charity. Ifyou participate with our advertising, even just by allowing them to load on your computer, you're helping to contribute. We're working hard to improvethe ad quality and we appreciate everyone's patience. I hope that, when you see the results in the form of these donations and the incredible work peopleare doing them, you'll consider it well worth it.
For those keeping score at home, this puts our total donations to date at over $93,000. With your help, we canbreak $100,000 in total donations by NikeTalk's 10th anniversary on December 10th!