Vick and Dogfighting: HSUS Media Machine Won't Quit HSUS makes shit up, then serves it to the public HSUS must have called in a few favors in order to convince USA Today to run a "news" item that was syndicated across the country. The Fight to Save Urban Youth is an animal extremist wet dream. HSUS wants to save "urban youths"? Let's just take a look at that concept. Shall we? Humane racism: Urban youths are the usual victims dogfighting villains Drug dealers. Criminals. Gang members. Status symbol seekers. Translation? Young black men. Or maybe young Hispanic men, depending on where you live. Not people from the 'burbs. Definitely not the lily-white constituents of the HSUS. Play it again, Wayne Pacelle. Ya gotta give HSUS major snaps for staying on message, though. HSUS' long history of trashinng the reputations of non-white, non-middle class dog owners and targeting them for discrimination goes way back. Consider HSUS's manipulation of events in Louisville, Kentucky. In June 2006, when HSUS Regional Coordinator Pam Rogers wrote to the Metro Louisville City Council to recommend breed specific legislation and the mandatory surgical sterilization of "pit bulls" she attempted to justify stripping people of their dogs by commenting: [pit bulls] are also the dogs of choice for drug dealers, gang members, and anyone else who is looking for a dog to be a status symbol. That's pretty much what HSUS spokesperson Tio Hardiman had to say in the USA today article: Kids get drawn in at an early age, says Hardiman, motivated by the "glamorization" of dogfighting by rap and hip-hop music and by neighborhood values that prize machismo. Its almost exactly what New York City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. will regurgitate every chance he gets. And make no mistake, Vallone bases his political career on getting "pit bulls" -- and their delinquent non-white owners -- the hell out of New York City. Vallone doesn't know much about "pit bulls" and he cares even less. But scape-goating young people of color? Oooh, baby.

Backdoor racism plays really well in some parts of New York, and the beauty of it all is that "urban youths" are already pariahs. Pit bull owners in general are easy pickings. But poor, black, young pit bull owners? They're defenseless. Color and money. Status symbols okay for kings of Spain, not okay for "urban youths" Hardiman and HSUS make a big fuss about dogs as "status symbols." As if those sly inner city youths held a monopoly on using dogs as status symbols, or for penis enhancement. Which is it? Does HSUS have a problem with status symbols. . .or skin color? Profiling "urban youths" based on fake statistics. Fake information. Fake news.

Every single one of the "experts" USA Today quoted in their article traces back to HSUS and its acolytes. HSUS controls the conversation. HSUS controls the "news". The USA Today article's primary source, HSUS client Tio Hardiman, invented the number of poor black and Hispanic kids involved in dogfighting -- There are at least 100,000 young kids fighting their dogs under the radar in America," estimates Chicago-based anti-violence advocate Tio Hardiman, who built his estimate on conversations with young dogfighters and authorities. . . Hardiman's analysis is based principally on "data" supplied by gangbanging, drug-dealing criminal black kids, apparently.

Count on Hardiman's wild guess, repeated over and over in follow up news coverage, to become another fake fact in the animal extremist repertoire. Fake facts lead to an artificial crisis According to HSUS and USA Today, dogfighting is all around us. . . .large numbers of youngsters are conducting street dogfights "in almost every urban inner city," and the numbers are growing . . .

Yikes! The threat is everywhere. HSUS Dogfight Czar John Goodwin startled New Yorkers with "news" that New York is the "dogfighting capital of the country." Gee. Who knew?

Not the ASPCA, which is headquartered in New York City and is charged with the enforcement of anti-dogfighting laws there.

Organized dog fighting in New York City does not appear to be prevalent, and the ASPCA rarely sees arrests for such activity. . .Currently, there are no reliable statistics . . . This is an underground, illegal activity so it is almost impossible to get accurate information about its prevalence.

Throw dinner at the wall. Go after what sticks.

This is a media war. Facts don't matter. HSUS isn't worried about the inconsistencies. It isn't worried about the truth.

HSUS sure as hell isn't worried about the well-being of "pit bulls" or "urban youths."

Any advancement in HSUS' ability to seize and kill dogs is a good thing, as far as they're concerned. Michael Vick had enough money to cover the expense of "rehabilitation" and even perpetual confinement rescue, if necessary, for his dogs.

Inner city youths don't. Their dogs will suffer and die by the hands of the impounding agencies that "saved" them.

And that's what the goal is here. One generation and out.

Pit bulls belonging to "inner city youths" first. The rest will follow.