There was an interesting conversation on NPR with psychologist Hal Herzog (Western California University,
http://www.wcu.edu/7051.asp).
Here is the full transcript:
http://m.npr.org/news/front/130892795?singlePage=true
Quote:
The Short Sad Life Of A Fast Food Chicken
Herzog doesn't shy away from the messier areas of that moral life. He devotes one section of the book to the underground phenomenon of cockfighting, and comes away with an uncomfortable conclusion: "A McDonald's chicken a suffers a much worse fate" than a gamecock, he tells Raz, "and I suspect you would be with me on this if I described the life of a game rooster and the life of a McDonald's chicken."
A gamecock lives for several years, often in pampered luxury, before it goes to its fate; a chicken destined for the plate lives about seven weeks, often in terrible, painful squalor.
"Now this is in no way to argue that cockfighting should be legal," Herzog says. "I don't think it should be legal. But on the other hand, it is a bit of a paradox that people get so bent out of shape about fighting roosters, and the suffering of chickens is probably the world's greatest animal welfare problem."
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Obviously, I do not support dog fighting. I think it is awful and I think people who engage in dog fighting are bad people. At the same time, Vick did his time, so the burden of whether or not he should be entitled to play football falls squarely on the private organization that is the NFL. He paid his debt to
society, and as far as I can tell he has been exhibiting good behavior since. In terms of his football career, in my make-believe world of ideology I would like to see his pay take a huge dock due to his crimes, but that is asking a lot. On the other hand, I think most sports players are overpaid.