CLC Speaker Tio Hardiman was was on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday talking about what his group is doing with working with inner-city youths to limit dog fighting in Chicago.
He talks about there being different levels of dog fighting (from more less organized street-level type stuff to more organized type stuff like what Mike Vick was involved in). The small scale stuff is definitely what we see more of in the Kansas City Area.
One really interesting point that he makes is that in many of these areas, the guys just don't value the animal's lives -- they figure that if they don't fight the dogs, someone else would anyway, so why not. In a subculture that doesn't place a huge amount of value even on human life due to the violence they see every day, it's nearly impossible to get them to see the value in the lives of animals.
This is why, even though dog fighting may be really high profile right now, it's important that we need our animal control officers focus on cruelty of all types...to realize there is value to these beings.
You can listen to the whole four-minute interview here.
Comments