The Michael Vick situation got me thinking: Do you guys struggle with animal rights like I do? I am stuck in the middle on the issue and it's never comfortable. I don't hunt or fish because if I'm hungry I can go to the store. However, I've learned how to do both and wouldn't have any problem killing animals to feed myself. I help out the local animal rescue community in Birmingham, but I can't aid them when they want to spend precious few resources on the extreme cases just to keep those animals alive who have had their quality of life irretrievably damaged (by age, injury, sickness, etc.). It is not a shame or evil to put an animal down instead of spending thousands of dollars (if the animal is suffering in some way, of course)...dragging life on unnecessarily is a uniquely human impulse. I buy synthetic hide products unless there is a specific reason that I can't or shouldn't. I eat meat, but I refuse to eat veal.

I don't want to argue the specifics of the Vick case because I think most of us can categorically agree that just the idea of what was going on is despicable. But whenever an animal rights issue hits the public like this, I'm always stuck between the wackos who believe we should never use animals for anything whatsoever and the wackos who assert that "their just dogs" and, hence, disposable.