Fresh Loaf

An Atlanta councilmember once told me the quickest way to determine whether a neighborhood could be considered scuzzy and low-rent is to drive around and see how many dogs are chained up in front yards.

Well, soon, we may need a different rule of thumb.

Today’s AJC has an article about a recent decision by the Forsyth County Commission to limit the chaining of dogs. According to the new rules, which were approved on a close 3-2 vote, dogs can be tethered on a temporary basis, but can’t be left outside on a chain permanently.

Fulton County, however, passed an even stronger ordinance back in March, although it won’t go into effect until next month. The delay, it seems, was to give dog owners time to build a fence or housetrain their beasts. Beginning Sept. 4, dogs cannot be chained or tethered to a fixed object unless held by an attendant or by the owner. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room. It should be noted that the Fulton ordinance enjoyed unanimous support from commissioners.

(more…)

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Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons star quarterback, was released May 20 from a federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan. He will be completing the final two months of his 23-month dog-fighting sentence in his Hampton, Va., home.

“Without one single doubt, Vick’s skill level will return. Will a team be interested in bringing him in to play? That’s difficult to determine right now on two levels: public relations and football. … He must be willing to do whatever it takes to help a team win as he rebuilds his life and career.”

— NFL exec Mike Lombardi, from his May 18 entry on National Football Post

“He’s erratic throwing the ball because of his mechanics. … It’s not his feet or his arms, it’s his release. … But now that they’ve got all these spread offenses, the Wildcat they’re running, a guy like Michael could be tremendous.”

— Roger Theder, San Diego Chargers assistant coach, quoted May 17 in the AJC

“I think Michael is just like so many other guys that I have seen. … It’s a young man that made a mistake and is looking for a chance to recover and move forward.”

— Tony Dungy, former Super Bowl-winning Indianapolis Colts head coach, to the AJC after meeting with Vick in Leavenworth

“We’re not interested in being part of a cynical ploy that’s nothing but public relations. … We believe that the behavior he has shown might very well be an indication of psychopathy and we’re asking for a brain scan and a thorough psychiatric evaluation.”

— PETA spokesperson Daphna Nachminovitch, on PETA’s rejection of Vick’s offer to participate in an advertisement for the group

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TMZ has the goods: an essay test called “Developing Empathy” that the former Falcons QB took for PETA shortly after pleading guilty to the 2007 federal dog fighting charges that landed him in Leavenworth. He didn’t do very well, scoring just 73.5 out of 100.

Why would Vick have taken such a test? Because he wanted to be allowed to cut a public-service TV ad for the organization, presumably to help rehabilitate his image while he was in stir. Apparently, the nice folks at PETA agreed, on the condition that the test results show he had sufficient empathy to convince them he wasn’t simply doing the ad as a crass PR move. As you must have guessed, they were unconvinced.

Still, as TMZ points out, Vick’s answers did provide the rest of us with some amusement:

• Vick explains “The Golden Rule” as doing “on to others as u want them to do on to u …. (as long the feeling is mutual).”
• “People who abuse animals dont [sic] have a heart and find it amusing to see animals suffer.”
• “Chickens have an uncanny ability to think and are very agile. They are very athletic to me.”
• “My aunt Tina own a Rotti name Tico. Once my aunt and her boyfriend Wayne was having an intense fight … [Tico] jump through a glass window & pinned my aunt boyfriend Wayne to the ground just growling … Now that’s loyalty.”

You can download a PDF of Vick’s hand-written answers here.

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This horse ran directly into the fence at full speed after being let out of the gate during the saddle bronc riding competition.

Thousands of people crowded into the Gwinnett Center Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009, for an evening of energized violence and brutality. The Toughest Cowboy competition had arrived at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth. The contest involved 12 cowboys competing in the triathlon of cowboy chaos, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding. The Gwinnett stop is part of a multi-city tour with the Toughest Cowboy being awarded a Rocky Mountain ranch near Laramie, Wyoming at the end of the three-month contest.

I was allowed to photograph from the rodeo dirt and focused my camera between the ring bars occasionally dodging hyper aggravated animals. I was so close I could hear the animals snort in Pain? Ecstasy? Revenge? Love? Death? I am not sure what they were feeling but they jumped and ran and kicked and screamed like beasts that had just been released from the gates of hell. The cowboys themselves were a beaten and tattered bunch. Tough Cowboy Jared Green from Socorro, New Mexico had to drop out of Saturday’s competition because of pain in his shoulder. Green’s injuries from rodeo competitions have included breaking both of his ankles, two surgeries on his shoulder, a knee operation, broken ribs, a broken hand, concussions and a knocked-out tooth. Green is only 22 years old.

The whole event seemed to teeter on epic disaster with batshit crazy horses running directly into fences at full speed and cowboys being thrown face first into the ground over and over again inside an arena of 5000 screaming people from the suburbs in cowboy hats and real cowboys from rural Georgia. It was insane, beautiful and chilling.

See more photos of the Toughest Cowboy in our photo galleries. 

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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