Vicious Vick Sacked By Indictment

Michael Vick, the star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, is in real serious trouble here after being implicated in a dog-fighting ring, and where those fights occurred on his property.

Apparently, he approved the electrocution of dogs to put them out of their misery after being injured in fights.

When a Bad Newz Kennels dog was wounded in a losing fight, NFL star Michael Vick was consulted before the animal was doused with water and electrocuted.

That’s just one of the gruesome details that emerged Tuesday when the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and three others were indicted by a federal grand jury.

The four were charged with competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

Animal cruelty is just the start of the troubles for Vick and his cohorts. If convicted, he's likely to spend six years in prison, and fined up to $350,000. He's also claimed not to know what was going on at his home and that relatives were taking advantage of his largesse. It will be interesting to see how the prosecutors tie him to the criminal acts beyond the occurrence of said acts at his home. That they're tipping off that he was consulted in putting down one injured animal suggests he was quite involved in the whole process and not on the sidelines.

About eight young dogs were put to death at the Surry County home after they were found not ready to fight in April 2007, the indictment said. They were killed “by hanging, drowning and/or slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground.”

“Some of the grisly details in these filings shocked even me, and I’m a person who faces this stuff every day,” Goodwin said. “I was surprised to see that they were killing dogs by hanging them, and one dog was killed by slamming it to the ground. Those are extremely violent methods of execution — they’re unnecessary and just sick.”

Purses for the fights ranged from hundreds of dollars to the thousands, and participants and spectators often placed side bets on the outcome, according to the indictment.

After two Bad Newz Kennels dogs lost fights in March 2003, the indictment alleged Vick gave a bag containing $23,000 to the owner of the winning dogs.

Started in early 2002, according to the indictment, Bad Newz Kennels began purchasing pit bulls to train as fighters. Eventually, the defendants bought shirts and headbands “representing and promoting their affiliation.”

After an April police raid on the property, Vick said he was rarely at the house, however, and had no idea that it might have been used in a criminal enterprise. He blamed family members for taking advantage of his generosity and pledged to be more careful.

If I'm the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, I'd be real worried about the future of his investment in Vick and the team's future. The NFL has been trying to crack down on criminal behavior by its players, and this is only the latest in a string of indictments by players.

The full indictment can be found here.