Vick is garbage.

AJC for the love of god, he is not an Atlanta Falcon anymore. Who the hell cares about this joke. Really, it’s getting old. The same comments every time. The same people every time. I for one am not commenting on another Vick post again.

VIEWERS WHO DO NOT WANT THIS CRAP ANYMORE LET US JUST NOT POST ON HERE. THE BLOG WILL BE DEAD AND THE AJC SHOULD BE FORCED TO MOVE ON AT THAT POINT. IF WE DON’T DEMAND THEY WON’T SUPPLY.

WHAT’S CAUSING ALL THIS? MITCH LUCAS

Normally here in this space, I have a little fun, talk about sports, things going on in the world and the like.

Today, it’s not going to be fun. There’s not going to be any stupid jokes. I want to be completely serious and bring up a topic that is going to turn a lot of heads.

It’s time to do something about pit bulls. It’s time for somebody to take a stand. And that somebody — or more than one person — should be our state senators and representatives.

In Kilgoround on page 1A of today’s paper, you can read what our publisher, Bill Woodall, has to say about why people own pit bulls, which I believe are basically living, breathing time bombs waiting to explode on someone.

I walked into Bill’s office on Wednesday afternoon to tell him my intent of mentioning this in my column, and he was already working on the Kilgoround discussing a similar topic.

This was, of course, all brought about by feelings after a tragedy.
Early this week, 10-yearold Justin Clinton — by all accounts a precious young man — was attacked, then killed by two dogs identified by several media outlets as American bulldogs, a member of the pit bull family. Right now, both the Clinton family and the family that owned the dogs are dist raught about this tragedy, and understandably so. It’s something they’re going to have to live with for the rest of their lives.

The owners of the dogs, who bought them together back in February, have said this week the animals had not shown any propensity for violence at all, let alone something like this.

My heart goes out to these families, and my prayers are with them.
Justin was, by everything I’ve been able to learn in the days since his death, a sweet child, a child that loved baseball and was preparing to be on the KBBA 9-and- 10 year-old American League all-star team, coached by Jeff Tubbs. Justin was to be on a fall ball team with my son, Jacob. He literally had almost his whole life in front of him.

Reports of pit bull attacks, maulings, and even deaths are a regular instance in this country. There were two more locally in the days just before and since Justin was attacked.

I’ve been here in East Texas for about seven years, and just in that time frame, I can think of nine or 10 instances where I’ve seen local coverage, in our paper and in other area media outlets, of children and adults being attacked by pit bulls. Even if those were the only ones, that’s nine or 10 too many.

Can anyone reading this tell me the last time, if ever, when you saw a story on pit bulls that had to do with something other than an attack?
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m about as conservative a guy as one can be. A friend of mine once liked to say that I’m somewhere to the right of Rush Limbaugh. I don’t like what’s happening in our country right now with the takeover of General Motors, government bailouts, government intervention in our lives, the potential overhaul of the health care system — I don’t like big government, period.

But let me be the first to call — no, to demand — our state representatives, Mr. Tommy Merritt and Mr. Chuck Hopson, and State Sen. Kevin Eltife, all good men, to do something about this right now. Don’t wait. It’s not a question of if the next pit bull attack will happen. it’s a question of WHEN.

I understand there’s a legislative session upcoming, and that would be the perfect time to bring this up. Introduce legislation to either put tough, tough restrictions on ownership of pit bulls, or ban owning the animals altogether.

Here are a few ideas of my own. I’m sure someone smarter than me can do better, but this is a start.

• Upon purchasing one of the dogs, have potential owners prove they will have the animals in a secure place. Do that by making permits to own pit bulls mandatory.

• impose a fee of like $500 that anyone who purchases a permit to own a pit bull must pay (that will discourage their ownership) and let that fee go to the humane society for upkeep.

• Have animal control officers make regular checks on these residences where pit bulls are held, and if the dogs’ restraints are not adequate, fine them heavily — like $1,000 — and confiscate the dog until the restraints are deemed to be adequate.

Or, like I said, ban pit bull ownership outright, which would be what I would favor.

I thought long and hard about this before writing this column. Anybody who’s known me for very long will tell you that I’m a blunt guy, and if asked (sometimes even if not), I will tell you what I think. Over the years in this column, I have never been known to pull punches. I figure this column will bring coals upon my head. But it’s been a very emotional week around here, and a young man lost his life. A woman in the Tyler area was attacked trying to protect another child from a pit bull attack, and a 4-year-old girl in Henderson was attacked as well. I felt these things needed to be said.

I know everyone has opinions, and I doubt everyone will agree with me. Anyone who wants to rail on me for calling for new state laws on pit bull ownership can do so.

I’m not that hard to find. You can e-mail me at sports@kilgorenewsherald.com.

You can phone me down here at (903) 984- 2593, or you can come by the office — it’s 610 East Main.

But before you do, you’d better have an outstanding argument other than “this is America” and “I can own and do what I want.”

Could you make that argument right now to the family of Justin Clinton, and to anyone who has a family member that has been the victim of a pit bull attack?

Source: http://www.kilgorenewsherald.com/new…ports/037.html

http://www.usaplayers.com/news/2009/nfl/july/odds-are-out-on-what-team-michael-vick-will-join-10527.html