As one might expect, there has been enormous response and commentary to this initiative for decency.
Interestingly enough most respondants have not actually read the article, or read it in detail; and tend not to come back after promising to read it before disagreeing with it.
There is a standing offer to set up an open Yahoo discussion group for those willing to go public, to under their own full name and organizational affiliation discuss these issues point by point.
So far no one has taken up this challenge.
Notice that I do not support eradication of the Pit Bull as a breed or the blanket breed specific legeslation as has come to pass in Ontario for instance. Rather we need to deal with pit fighting as a criminal conspiracy, just as we in the end we dealt with the Mafia as a conspiracy rather than waging war on Italian Americans in general.
The prosecution of Michael Vick under federal law and by federal agents is a huge step in the right direction.
One of the primary points made in response is that the best solution to the problem of sport pit killing is enforcement of existing laws and appropriate penalties. In general I agree with this and agree that the place to start against criminal pit fighting is enactment of appropriate penalties.
But there are limits. At a certain point severe penalties for drug possession have only tended to fill up our jails with relatively minor criminals and left the real perpetrators, the higher level distributors, still out of reach.
This is why the concept of conspiracy as a legal principle has come into use, as a way of reaching the real cause. This is why the elimination of the pit killing establishment, the people and the dogs must be broadly based and seek out root causes in order to be ultimately effective.
But in the broader sense the Mafia did not disappear into legend because of rigorous law enforcement, it disappeared because American society opened up, giving smart, aggressive young Italian Americans role models of successful Italian business men and political leaders to emulate, which they have done.