August 23, 2007
Stephon Marbury Tries to Support Michael Vick,
But Just Seems to Make Things Worse
New York Knick Stephon Marbury spoke to Albany's Capital 9 News and expressed his support for his fellow embattled athlete, Michael Vick, who agreed to plead guilty to dogfighting charges earlier this week. Marbury said:
"I think it's tough. I think, you know, we don't say anything about people who shoot deer or shoot other animals. You know, from what I hear, dog fighting is a sport. It's just behind closed doors. I think it's tough that we build Michael Vick up and then we break him down. I think he's one of the superb athletes and he's a good human being. I just think that he fell into a bad situation."Um...
We asked PETA for a comment and PETA President Ingrid Newkirk responded:
Well, there are two points here. First, yes, PETA doesn't think it's acceptable to hunt any animal for fun, so unless you are an Aborigine or similar, there's no excuse for hunting. Apparently, most of the American public agrees, considering that less than 5 percent of the American population hunts. Most people you ask will opine that shooting animals with guns—or, worse, by using a crossbow—is a cruel and cowardly pastime. That's because most Americans take to the woods to hike, take pictures, and enjoy wildlife alive, not bleeding on the ground and gasping for breath.Marbury told the Post today that he was misrepresented, saying, "I don't think [Vick's]'s right. He's 100 percent wrong. But this dude is trying to ask for forgiveness and everyone's turning their heads on a man trying to ask for forgiveness. The way it's going about in the newspapers and TV, it's ridiculous.'' He criticized how ESPN is fixated on the Michael Vick case and said that he never said dogfighting was a sport but only that he "heard" dogfighting was a sport. Well, it's not the first time we've tried to make sense of Marbury.Second, deer hunting is not illegal, whereas dogfighting is. As bad as deer hunting is—especially when someone can't shoot straight, is liquored up, or just doesn't care to track the wounded—people aren't out there hanging live deer from trees with ligatures around their necks, spraying them with water, and then electrocuting them, are they? Stephon Marbury shows an ignorance about dogfighting that's mind-boggling; if he doesn't read the law, you'd think he'd at least read the paper. The Michael Vick case has made it about as clear as you can get that not only is dogfighting barbaric, it is also universally condemned, is against every state's cruelty-to-animals laws, and has never been miscategorized by anyone as a sport. If Marbury truly thinks that raising dogs to train them to rip each other apart, suffocate them to death, and slam them to the ground when they don't fight to satisfaction is a sport—or even thinks that letting two animals fight your battles for you is a sport—he needs psychological help.
PETA is offering $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of dogfighters in their Bite Back program.
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I keep reading that PETA takes stray animals and euthanasias them immediately. I've tried to find out for sure, but constantly get conflicting information. There have been stories that PETA trucks routinely go around and capture animals (strays, ferals, lost animals) and kills them. Can anyone confirm this?
As to dogfighting... ugh. What a miserable "sport."
"But this dude is trying to ask for forgiveness and everyone's turning their heads on a man trying to ask for forgiveness." -- Has Vick made any public statements about this at all, much less asked for "forgiveness"? Just asking.
Marybury is a retard. Why don't their agents muzzle these guys?
1,2,3...
Racist posts start now.
"First, yes, PETA doesn't think it's acceptable to hunt any animal for fun, so unless you are an Aborigine or similar, there's no excuse for hunting. Apparently, most of the American public agrees, considering that less than 5 percent of the American population hunts."
She overstates here. I dont hunt animals, and will never hunt them, however certain forms of controlled hunting are useful in controlling population growth of certain kinds of animals. And is she bundling up fishing in her broad statement?
Equating hunting with dogfighting is insane and an act of ignorance that should have been ignored. Instead, Ms. Newkirk used it as a jumping board to launch into a diatribe on hunting - not surprising, but unfortunate - she seems to relish her reputation as a zealot to be dismissed. She gets a bit back on track, but not after totally reaffirming my lack of respect for her and her organization.
Why can't the animal rights groups just focus on issues that most everyone can get behind? Better treatment of farm animals (bred and raised solely for our consumption), eliminating cruelty for cruelty's sake (dogfighting, cockfighting), turning the tide back against fur, banning canned hunts?
I love that whole 5% logic - apparently because only a small percentage of people engage in something, then everyone else is against it.
Stephon Retardbury
1,2,3...
Racist posts start now.
3,2,1, you're an idiot.
I also like how Newkirk tries to associate hunters with drunks. What an asshole she must be.
That Lincoln High School education is doing wonders for Stephon.
Marbury would be the guy on Cash Cab who got thrown out of the cab before his destination.
This it the latest in a long line of utterly absurd comments by Coney Island's finest. Earlier in this summer, he suggested that he maintained a psuedo-incestuous relationship with his sister. And a few years back he claimed without doubt that he was the best point guard in the NBA. So, his Michael Vick comments should come as no surprise. What IS surprising is that newscasters and journalists in the metropolitan area still value his opinions. Stephon, please opine next on Lindsay Lohan. I can't wait to hear what you have to say.
Trade him now, Zeke.
Just goes to show that nobody expects athletes to be the pinnacle of human intellect. Not by a long shot.
It is a little amusing to get the opinions of both extremes of idiocy, though. PETA is a joke (anyone remember the Fishkill fiasco?).
I guess we should send the FBI out to Marbury's place to see if he is involved in dog fighting too. Scumbag.
[5] wrote:
Agreed. And heck, it's hardly like it's just "Aborigine[s] or similar" that have legitimate reasons for hunting. Plenty of people in less urban parts of this state shoot a deer or two in the fall and have meat all winter. Lots cheaper than buying venison at a store, and frankly I don't see anything wrong with it.I understand Marbury's point, though I don't think he fully got across what he was trying to say. He understands that what Vick did is worse than hunting, but isn't it still just the killing of animals?
Aren't the Sudanese who kill Darfurians straight up just as bad as those who rape, then kill them?
[5]
Useful, but not necessary. It doesn't change the fact that hunting, in the developed world in the 21st century, is always barbaric.
Why can't the animal rights groups just focus on issues that most everyone can get behind?
That Americans don't support something makes it unworthy of advocacy?
Since the NAACP supports Vick, does this mean the NAACP hates animals?
First Marbury donates 3,000 pairs of his sneakers to male high school basketball teams, while ignoring the female players. Then he calls dogfighting a "sport." This is obviously a man in desperate need of an advisor/publicist. He should just zip it.
Where's the roasted dog guy?
wait, It's me. me luvs me some roasted dog right now. it's the best meat, only the best for me.
the best, larry, the best.
If hunting is barbaric then what do you call the meat industry in this country? At least the deer that get shot in the woods were free deer until the day they died, as opposed to the cattle that are locked in tiny cages until the moment they're marched off to have a bolt shot through their skulls and then hung upside down and skinned alive.
Not that I give a damn -- cattle are delicious. So are deer.
Marbury should wear a shock collar that activates every time he opens his mouth.
I expect "Starburry" to be a bit dim etc. But for the head of PETA to sound like such a retarded rascist helps to remind me what a useless fringe group they are. Way to drop the ball Ms. Newkirk.
#22, there is nothing racist in Newkirk's comments. You are an oversensitive dweeb.
Hunting is NOT like dogfighting. Hunters eat the deer they hunt, and reduce the deer population so everyone isn't hitting one driving down the street. It may not be "pretty" but it serves a purpose and isn't inhumane.
Dogfighting is done for entertainment and is an excuse to gamble. It's sick. What's next, comparing dogfighting to poker? Marbury is an idiot.
arming hunters and having them shoot at animals is about as fair, in "sporting" terms, as having a real basketball player take on marbury. what unskilled, uneducated, worthless piles of freakishly-sized body tissue both of them, and vick's accomplices, are.
would vick or marbury be doused with water and electrocuted if they didn't meet their owners' standards? well, it's nice to think so and hope for the best.
at least there'll be a good rape stick in prison...
wow, who knew so many New Yorkers are hunters?
who knew?? and they eat their kill, too. wowsie, wowsie.
[23]
Hunting is also done for entertainment.
I don't know how this thing has become a race thing ... with the Atlanta NAACP chiming in. Is this a black thing? Are we supposed to go easy on him 'cause he IS black? What gives?
Yeah, I don't know why this has become a race issue. Regardless of race, it's reprehensible.
Hunting is a sport that has a practical use: thinning the number of deer. They're shot and killed, not torn apart and mauled like in dogfighting.
If you listen to the NAACP statement, at 3:49 the guy says "There are many many other people who just love my dick."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/22/vick/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Really PETA? 5%? Really, you're really going to try and throw that number out there like its not a manipulation of facts? Wow.
PETA? You couldn't have found a more middle ground organization . . .Oh, wait, this is Gothamist and you all comment bait. Wait. . .Damn it!
I didn't even need to read this post. Just reading the headline made me smack my forehead.
I love you Steph...but just stick to playing ball and selling inexpensive sneakers and keep your goddamn mouth shut. Please. For your own good!
I'm glad to see a lot of people here defending hunters. Someone tried to make a point that it's not very sporting, and it's hard to disagree with that, but I'd say the vast majority of hunters are doing the rest of us a service. Deer populations are out of control in many places. We may not get to see it in the city, but drive 20 miles north or west, and you'll start seeing quite a few dead ones on the side of the road.
If anything, tracking and shooting a deer in the woods is a lot more humane than being forced to live in a tiny cage until one day somebody comes along and presses a bolt gun to your forehead.
I would never hunt anything, and I can't defend every kind of hunting, but the majority of it serves a good purpose. It keeps deer from destroying their environment (which would happen since we killed off most of the top predators over a century ago), and it keeps the deer from being killed on the roads, which in turns keeps people from being killed or injured in the collisions.
DOGS ARE TASTY...
SO WE CAN LIKE BOXING, NASCAR CRASHES AND THE DEATH PENALTY
BUT...
DOG FIGHTING IS HORRIBLE???
DO WE PREFER THE PETS WE FEED OR HUMANS?
VICK IS WRONG ONLY BECAUSE OF THE LAW...IF VICTORIAN AND COLONIAL HISTORY'S MEN WERE INTO DOG/COCK FIGHTING IT WOULD BE LEGAL LIKE FOX HUNTING/ DEER HUNTING...
PICK AND CHOOSE YOUR MORALS ...
THEN BEAT YOUR KID AND DRINK AND DRIVE BUT PLEASE NO DOG FIGHTING!!
What a Jack Ass!! As I watched the interview this morning all I could think was HOW IGNORANT CAN ONE PERSON BE?!! To say that it is like bird hunting…. WTF!! Stick to the ball and hoop. That seems to be the only thing these guys know. They have not fully evolved into the Decent American Culture yet. They are still at curb level when it comes to some class or respect for life. All the money & fame in the world can never buy common decency. Jack Ass’s!!
Mr Marbury apparently is showing he is an idiot and shows why he is the perfect role model for today's youth along with fellow sportsmen Barry "Steroids" Bonds, Jose "Juiced" Canseco, Mark "Mutant" McGuire, and Tim "Fixer" Donaghy, Michael "Dog Fighter" Vick.
Deer hunting is just another "Bubba" "sport". Unlike the other popular hick "sport" of NASCAR "automobile" racing which just wastes space, petroleum products and is less interesting than watching traffic cameras of the Cross Bronx Expressway; hunting injures animals and helps foster the gun nuts who want lax government oversight of weapons (thanks to the gun lobby) which wind up killing people on the streets of New York, Newark, and cities all over.
There are places, not too far from New York City, where the first day of hunting season is a day off for kids so they have the chance to go off with one or both of their parents and kill animals with guns for "sport".
WNBC's Brian Thompson looked into the "sport" of dog fighting earlier this year and it is truly shocking - not only the violence but the fact that it just seems to be another facet in the urban thug culture which has less risk than drugs, so it is getting wider acceptance. Still both hunting and dog fighting are fringe activities that share the common thread of brutalizing animals in the name of so called sport.
People are forgetting the culture in which hunting finds support. It's desensitizing to mankind and used as justification for gun ownership.
As well, it's dangerous. I don't want bullets flying through the forests when I'm hiking...
As far as controlling deer populations, the ends don't justify the means. Unless that rule doesn't apply?
#35, there are plenty of 3rd world countries where you are 100% correct. Go there and leave us to a civilized life.
"I'd say the vast majority of hunters are doing the rest of us a service. Deer populations are out of control in many places."
Yeah, it's the deer's fault. So we should kill them. Thanks, hunters! Now we can build a strip mall or McMansion where the deer used to be.
Newkirk's response seems reasonable to me. Remember, she didn't bring up the hunting analogy, Marbury did. And in her second point, she says explicitly that hunting is not as bad as dog fighting.
Also: Jen, this is the most passionately argued post I think I've ever seen from you. I like it.
hunting is good for reducing deer population. Because you know before there were people around there were like a gajillion deer. Friggin deer everywhere. You couldn't move because of all the friggin deer. What's that stepping on my toes? Oh that's a god damn friggin deer!
Toby shows up with his elitist bullshit. What a loser you must be.
Ironically, it's the ever-expanding suburban land use that has produced a proliferation of deer. Suburban land use produces more "margin" areas of grass and forest lands where deer can eat but easily take cover. Thinning the herd is definitely important and should really be considered our duty given what we've done to the land, how we've driven out their major predators, and decreasingly harsh winters. I recall in the late '80's and early '90's deer herds upstate that had members with three legs and other birth defects because of overpopulation and inbreeding. I think the hunting management has gotten much better over the years and the herds are healthier, but given the decrease in the interest in hunting and the decrease of land in which to do it safely (read, "suburbia"), populations are becoming a problem again and the state is issuing more permits to single individuals and doe permits, etc.
PETA is living in another world on this issue. They should stick to the Canadian seal hunt, which does seem pretty sick. Though it was hampered this past year by lack of solid pack ice (thank you, global warming!).
Actually, wolves used to control the deer population, but were hunted almost to extinction because farmer feared wolves would prey on their animals. Deer are a problem because they have no other natural predators. I have no problem with hunting so long as it's tightly regulated, and it is pretty much.
#35, Victorian men did lots of stuff, including buying and selling slaves. Should we presume that that was ok too, and therefore allow it? Open up your mouth boy, show me your teeth.
Most of the gun violence in this country is committed with handguns which are not really a hunting a weapon. Mixing hunting with gun control is meaningless for both sides.
And before European colonists showed up there were far fewer deer. Deer live primarily at the edges of forests. Much of the northeast was wooded which meant less forest edge. When man showed up and starting cutting down the trees to farm, he created more forest edge. Hence more deer.
Hey morons,
Hunting is cruelty to anminals, point blank. Hunters are not doing me a favor, they are enjoying themselves shooting defenceless animals! Some say hunting is different than dog fighting. Yes it is. Dogs have a chance. Like it or not. The owners of these dogs what to win, therefore they train their dogs to win and survive. Most wild animals on the otherhand really and I mean really don't know what hit them. Buckshot, arrows, and bullets are completely foreign to them. I have been shot before and even though I was in a combat zone and in the Army I was pissed at the rag head that dit it. Lets face it. Trying to justify that hunting for sport is better than the practice dog fighting is like saying raping a free woman is better than raping a slave.
46: Hunting controls the deer population. You may not like it, or want to do it but it has a reasonably good outcome. Bringing suburban sprawl, and overzealous gun-nuts into it confuses things entirely.
Your rape analogy is just bizarre.
I have never had more respect for life than the day when I was 14 and felled my first buck. I had to field dress the animal involving cutting the sternum and belly and scooping out the guts. It was cold and the warm steam from the organs of the buck was nauseating. I've never been closer to the truth about the struggle for existence. The buck I killed nourished me. I sacrificed its life for mine. A harsh reality that few in PETA's ranks have ever looked in the face.
I have the up most respect for animals and think that dogfighting is a perverted form of cruelty that deserves punishment. Hunting is a skill that has carried humans from prey to top predator. PETA does not believe that Humans should continue to be the top predator, their position is unfounded in logic and experience.
will.xls
#44: Victorian-era American men may have taken part in the buying of slaves, but no Victorian men (in the strictest sense) did--or if they did, they were breaking the law: Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833, and Victoria was crowned in 1837.
I need to clarify what i posted.
I did not mean literal muzzles. I'm just saying that if an agent's contract and credibility is at stake agents should tell their clients to stfu for their own sake.
Stephon Marbury's intent was Nobel, All and all foolish . I have to give the man credit for his stance in supporting Vick's right to lead his own life . We all make mistakes and this is no different . My second point is, PETA's full of Canned "Cat, Dog, Horse, & Lizard" shit ! Fuck PETA, They claim to be "For" the animals if that were true then we wouldn't have Pet stores that "Sell" some of the very same animals they claim to be trying to protect ! Why haven't we heard of them staking out the Pet store's ? I'm sure some of these so called "Animal Lovers" have pets that they "Purchased" from some Pet store . what's up with that ? Isn't that a form of animal cruelty ? Caging an animal against it's will selling it for a price . That sounds a lot like slavery to me, Why aren't they protesting that ? Do they know that there are animals (Other lifeforms) that we humans kill on a daily basis ! I could go on and on with this argument but alias, It's pointless ! Like I said PETA is full of all the shit mentioned in this post and then some ! Fuck PETA ! Posted by; "Still Not Amused"
Believe it or not, you do not learn everything you need to know about nature by watching Bambi. An animal's life is filled with pain, suffering and ultimately death. The collective suffering of animals caused by cars dwarfs that caused by hunters. The last time a car you were in hit an animal, did you track it and dispatch it if necessary? If you did, how many other people do you think did that? I've never forgotten the time I bowled over a deer, and watched it scramble off into the night with a dangling leg. That deer probably lingered for a few days before dying - I still think about hitting that deer and its likely suffering more than a decade later. And I am one of those depraved individuals who hunts. I can't imagine the emotional trauma a more "enlightened" individual would suffer.
As for guns not being "sporting," it is the surest way to humanely kill an animal. Non-hunters think that hunters simply love killing and have no concern for the animal - this is about as far from the truth as you can get. The decision to take another creature's life is a very conscious, deliberate and wrenching one, and the hunter's main concern is to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible. You've been watching this animal go about its life, directly or through its sign for hours, if not days, and you are going to end it. Sure, it would be more "sporting" to shoot an arrow at that deer as it runs through brush, but THAT would be exceptionally cruel and is something that most hunters would never imagine doing. Numerous times I've passed up shots that would have been relatively easy, but which I thought posed too high of a risk of wounding the animal. Most hunters do the same.
Like will.xls, my experience hunting has given me far more respect for life and nature than I ever would have otherwise. When I eat venison from a deer I killed, I know that it lived its life according to its own design and free will, and that it died quickly and likely with far less pain than it would otherwise. For some reason I find this preferable to supporting industrial scale meat production where animals are raised in inherently inhumane conditions for our consumption.