Say Hello To Pacman, Mr. Vick

[Bretsky]

If I'm not mistaken they end up shoving the sword down through the bull right between the shoulder blades at the end of the whole thing. They guys that do it are balsy, and I would assume a lot of them get gored.
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Balsy? Not as much as you might think. A bull fight includes the following, BEFORE the matador takes centerstage:

A rider on a horse using a long lance stabs the bull on the top of the neck to sever muscles and prevent the bull from raising his head. This might be done more than once. It is also to encourage blood loss.

Usually at least four and sometimes more pointed sharp sticks (with colorful streamers) are stabbed into the neck and left there. This too is to control neck movements, but also to promote additional blood loss.

The bull is chased in a circle by all involved to disorient him and encourage blood loss.

Only after the bull is weakened from significant blood loss and disoriented from running in circle after circle with three foot sticks stuck in his neck does the "balsy" matador enter the ring.

More horses are gored during the lancing than matodors at the end. The bull isn't already half-dead at the time the blindfolded horses encounter him.

Often the bull is still alive after multiple stabbings from the matador. Some are still alive when an ear and/or their tail is cut off and they are dragged from the ring by a horse. The coup de grace is delivered outside the ring for those that don't die in it.

I went to a bull fight in Mexico a few years ago; my wife wanted to take in the experience tp see what they were like for whatever reason.

The people were cowards. They were not getting hurt except for an extreme error. Their goal was the stick that sword right in between the shoulder bladed in the exact area that would result in a quick kill. But 3 of the 4 were chumps that missed and missed and missed. Each time they missed the bull would bleed further and further and weaken.

It was cruel and inhumane actions. Anybody attending one with an ounce of common sense would agree.

I now find the people who support this tradition more dispicable than I thought they were before attending.

And I'm by no means a PETA dude or anything like that.

Bad events run by terrible people; I actually feel bad I paid a few bucks to attend that pathetic excuse of an event.

Never again. Never again.


B

[Zool]

Well even in a dying state, I'm not getting in that ring. I've seen enough clips of matadors getting gored. I dont agree with it, but I dont see it stopping anytime soon.

[Kiwon]

The intrigue continues..........

Prosecutor: Informants link Vick to dogfighting

SURRY, Va. (AP) — Informants have come forward saying they can link Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick to dog fighting, the prosecutor in the case said Thursday, and he has turned their accounts and contact information over to investigators.

Surry County Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald G. Poindexter said he has heard from about a half-dozen people claiming to have information about Vick's involvement in dog fighting, but he does not know if their claims have proven to be reliable.

In a letter, an inmate in a South Carolina prison claimed that he attended dog fights where Vick also was in attendance and saw Vick bet large amounts of money. Another informant provided street names of dog fighters from elsewhere in Virginia.

A deputy sheriff in the county, W.R. Brinkman, is on the road investigating the claims, Poindexter said, noting that the investigation is the job of the sheriff.

Poindexter said a search warrant issued May 23 for the massive home Vick owns in the county still has not been executed because he wants to make certain that any search does not jeopardize the investigation. Several years ago, another dog fighting case in the county was thrown out of court because of an illegal search, he said.

The search warrant was issued after an informant told Brinkman there were as many as 30 dogs carcasses buried on the property, and Poindexter said he is confident that evidence already seized from the home would be enough to hand down indictments.

He said any attempt to remove the carcasses would also be incriminating.

When charges will be sought and who will face them remains to be seen, he said, noting that unless a special grand jury is called, the county grand jury is scheduled to meet next on July 24. The county has never had a special grand jury called.

The case began April 25 when police conducting a drug investigation raided the house Vick owns and found 66 dogs, 55 of them pit bulls. They also found items associated with dog fighting, including a "pry bar" used to pry apart a dog's jaws.

Dog fighting is a felony in Virginia.

Vick, a registered dog breeder, has blamed relatives for taking advantage of his generosity and insisted he's rarely at the house. He has since put the home on the market and sold it in a day, although the sale has not yet been completed.

A store-bought "For Sale by Owner" sign once put up in the front yard of the two-story, painted brick home is no longer in the yard.
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They are getting one step closer to Vick.

Note that he has already sold the house and it ready to move on (and maybe remove evidence on the way out?). Note also there is a history of dog fighting in the county - with no convictions due to a technicality.

Also notice that the Commonwealth's Attorney (prosecutor) makes a point that the investigation is the responsibility of the local sheriff. The sheriff in turn has put his best deputy on the case, a one-man task force.

I just wonder if its Barney or Gomer. That's unfair.....but funny.

[Kiwon]

Another update.....

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Prosecutor in Vick dogfighting case takes 'cautious' course

By Chris Colston, USA TODAY

SURRY, Va. — Gerald Poindexter held up a manila envelope to reveal its emptiness.

"I don't have one investigation report in my file," the commonwealth's attorney of rural Surry County told USA TODAY on Monday. "But I'm talking to people conducting the investigation."

Poindexter spent an hour Monday morning with one of the people — deputy sheriff W.R. Brinkman — investigating the property owned by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for possible dogfighting.

On April 25, a search of Vick's property uncovered drug paraphernalia and 66 dogs in the yard. They were seized the next day.

With the national media and those seeking an indictment looking for answers and frustrated by the snail's pace of the investigation, Poindexter defends the slow progress in the high-profile case.

"One report described me as 'gun-shy,' " he said. "I would say I am cautious, but I don't want to say I'm overly cautious."

Ashley L. Taylor, a former deputy attorney general for Virginia and now a partner in a Richmond law firm, understands Poindexter's approach.

"This seems to be an example of a prosecutor taking a deep breath and gathering all the facts with the understanding that it's a high-profile case," Taylor said. "When he comes forward, he wants to be sure all his I's are dotted and his T's are crossed."

Poindexter has seen what he believes is evidence of dogfighting on the property — things such as a rape stand used to hold unwilling dogs in place for mating, a pry bar used to open their clamped-shut mouths and a bloody piece of carpeting believed to be used in the dogfighting — and investigators have been interviewing informants. But it's not an easy process, the beleaguered prosecutor said.

"If you don't catch someone in the middle of a dogfight, you have to rely on forensics or get someone to say they were at a dogfight," Poindexter said, and that could implicate them. But "we're prepared, in the proper case, to give immunity."

More than one defendant could be indicted, Poindexter said, and he knows they could have the financial means to hire high-powered attorneys. "I know … they will obviously put up the best defense," he said, "and they would attack everything that's available to attack."

Last week he and Sheriff H.D. Brown denied a warrant to search Vick's property at 1915 Moonlight Road, a search that could reveal as many as 30 buried dog carcasses.

"When (we) saw the affidavit and warrant, we were glad we held it up, because it appeared to be (flawed)," Poindexter said. "It referred back to the search of April 26. Why go back to that if you can avoid it?"

Poindexter lost a case involving dogfighting in 2000 because of Fourth Amendment (illegal search) issues. He wants to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Poindexter first learned of the investigation on the evening of April 25. The next day, he and county administrator Tyrone W. Franklin went to the property when investigators were removing evidence.

"I was taken to the back of the property, where there was a bleached-out carcass of what appeared to be a dead dog," he said. "I mean an old carcass. I saw no evidence of any flesh on it. Just white bones. Even if vultures had picked on it, even in the last six months you would have seen evidence of flesh on it. So it was an old carcass. I don't know what it tells us, but I saw that."

Inside the house, Poindexter saw what appeared to be evidence of dogfighting in an upstairs room. The room was accessible only by a ladder. "There was blood in an upper room of the house," he said. "Now, there were some reports that the room was drenched in blood. That's not true. But there were blood spatters."

Because of the ladder, Poindexter said the only way dogs could get in the room "was if humans brought them there."

Poindexter still has no idea when the investigation will conclude or when any indictments will be brought.

"I've talked to no person directly who claims to have seen dogfighting on that property," he said, "or has been associated with anybody who has been at a dogfight.

"I keep going back to this: Michael Vick cannot fight dogs by himself. There have got to be other people — accomplices."