Victimized again?

Barring a miracle, Michael Vick's victims will be the only ones to die for his crimes.

The prosecutor in the case wants the 50-odd confiscated dogs, taken from hell and being kept in "undisclosed locations" at shelters in rural Virginia, to be killed, and 5 p.m. Eastern today marks the deadline for their putative owners to claim them before Judge Henry Hudson issues an order on their fate. In theory, he has two options, selling them, which no one expects to happen, and killing them.

This means that at such time as the dogs cease to be "evidence," they'll die. If by some chance they're in a "good" shelter, someone they've bonded with and grown to love and trust will commit the ultimate betrayal of that love and trust, taking them for what they think is a jolly outing and conning them with blandishments that everything is OK while someone else pumps their veins full of Fatal-Plus. If they're in the type of "shelter" that abounds around the country, they'll be hauled to the death chamber wailing, peeing and dragging their feet by sadistic thugs who forcibly hold them down for the lethal injection. Or, since this is in the rural South where such things are still accepted, they'll be thrown in a metal box, shut in, and left to struggle and scream in pain and terror for the endless minutes it takes the deadly gas to kill them.

True, in the time it takes you to read this column, this is happening to hundreds of puppies, kittens, dogs, cats, and assorted other critters across the country, most of whom have done nothing except, say, have a sniffle, or be yet another large black dog, or have a treatable medical condition, or have an owner who died, or be in a cage that has to be vacated for the next unfortunate. None of which is even remotely acceptable. But for Vick's dogs to be twice victimized, and at the hands of the "justice system," is the very definition of obscenity.

The rationale for killing these dogs? Statements from "animal rights groups" like PETA, who have been calling for the dogs' blood on the grounds that they're "ticking time bombs." Conveniently missing from PETA's grandstanding is their stated agenda of killing ALL pit bulls, not to mention their sorry track record of taking animals from shelters and individuals with promises to find them homes, killing them in their death van, and throwing their remains in dumpsters.

Then there's the Humane Society of the United States, which aside from the occasional bit of disaster relief and such does no hands-on work with animals and maintains no shelters, preferring to focus on "advocacy." Its position, amid crocodile tears, is that the dogs must die, and it urges people to "mourn" the still alive and well dogs by sending big bucks to the HSUS anti-dogfighting war chest.

Never mind that the people who actually work with dogs, including rescued fighting dogs, think it's very likely many of them could be rehabilitated. Nor that James Smith, the shotgun-toting animal control officer of Surry County, where the dogs are being held, says, "They are not violent to humans."

And frankly, the issue here is not whether they're violent to humans, the issue is that Michael Vick owes these dogs a life of care and comfort as a minor reparation for what he did to them. For those who aren't candidates for adoption, and there probably are some, Vick should be required to fund the construction and staffing (with savvy, caring people) of a secure facility in which the dogs live in the most homelike setting they can manage. Perhaps the former premises of Bad Newz Kennels. And, of course, they should be spayed and neutered.

It is perfectly within the power of Judge Hudson to require Vick to do so as a condition of accepting his plea bargain, and Vick has plenty of ill-gotten money to do it. For this reason, some of us have launched an online petition encouraging the judge to stop listening to the usual suspects and do right by these dogs, and we heartily encourage folks to sign it.

Since the prison system has largely abdicated its responsibility to keep those in its custody safe, some may find a silver lining in the likelihood that Vick and his sorry-ass cronies are pretty likely to experience some of what they inflicted on their victims once they're behind bars. However satisfying the thoughts of vengeance may be, they should not be a distraction from the urgency of seeing to the safety and well-being of the former inmates of Bad Newz Kennels.

Our own Karel has a few choice words for Michael Vick also. Check him out here.